Loki's Christmas Carol
by Sarah1281
Summary: A week before Thor's scheduled coronation and everything spirals out of control until Loki falls into the void, Loki receives some ghostly visitors who think that maybe Loki's plan could use a second look. And a third. And however many it takes to make him try something else. Asgard doesn't even celebrate Christmas and yet he still has to put up with this useless Midgardian tripe.
1. Chapter 1

Loki's Christmas Carol

Loki was sitting in the library and reading up on Frost Giants.

He had never been as interested in Frost Giants and the Great War as Thor had been. He had no love for them but straight-up battles were much more to Thor's liking than his own. He was proud of his father for the victory, certainly, but he had been content to let the Frost Giants fade into the backdrop while there was new magic to discover, mischief to conduct, and an overly-reckless brother to constantly save.

Even now, sitting here, he was attempting to save Thor. More than Thor, he was trying to save the whole realm. Such nobility wasn't often like him but this time it was different. This was _important _and he was completely in the right here, even if no one else was likely to agree. Well, he'd just have to not mention his involvement to anybody.

It wasn't like he didn't understand why no one would be applauding him for his actions. Letting Frost Giants into Asgard? That was madness. It wasn't just some harmless – or not-so-harmless – prank. It was technically treason and it could lead to people dying. It might even lead to a war. He wasn't unaware of these risks and this was not a choice he was making lightly.

Still, what else could he do? No one wanted to listen when he tried to explain about Thor's complete and utter unsuitability for the throne. He didn't truly understand why he even had to try and explain. These people spent just as much time with Thor as he did. Why wasn't it as blazingly obvious to them as it was to him?

He loved Thor but the man was a bit of an idiot. He never thought things through, he always acted without consequences, and he thought that he was unbeatable. He rarely listened to advice and he was altogether too easy to manipulate. Was he supposed to stay at Thor's side forever and try to manipulate him into being a better king? He would if he had to but surely there was a better way.

He was doing Asgard a favor but they'd never know as Loki wasn't so petty as to allow Thor to prove it.

Hence the Frost Giants. Nothing would interrupt a coronation so well as Frost Giants invading (and it would have to be during the coronation or else it might be finished in time to hold it) and he was sure that the invasion as well as the timing of it would set Thor off and make it truly obvious what a mistake the Allfather was making. And if that wasn't enough, Loki was sure that he could goad Thor into attempting to invade Jotunheim himself. He'd never let it go that far, of course, but surely then their father would see!

He'd get no thanks but seeing Thor not ascending to the throne until he was less likely to get everyone killed would be thanks enough.

Hence he was in the library trying to find out more about the Frost Giants. He shouldn't be in a position where he'd have to kill one but plans had an unfortunate tendency to fall apart when Thor was around.

"Loki."

Loki glanced up to see his mother smiling fondly at him. "Hello, Mother."

"Hard at work, I see," Frigga noted.

Loki shut the book. "I'm really just reading up on history."

"Or what passes for it after all the tales are told," Frigga said. "And speaking of, Loki, I wanted to talk to you about next week."

"Next week?" Loki asked, deliberately casual.

Frigga gave him a look that said that she saw right through him. "Yes, next week. Thor's coronation."

"Ah, of course," Loki said, nodding. "Well, what of it?"

"Are you alright with the coronation happening?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Loki asked rhetorically.

"Despite Thor being older, your father didn't make the decision about who should be king until pretty recently," Frigga said. "I'm happy for Thor but I want to make sure that you aren't upset."

Loki didn't look at her. "Why would I be upset?"

"Your father isn't saying that you wouldn't make a good king or that he loves you any less than he loves Thor," Frigga said soothingly.

"Isn't he, though?" Loki couldn't help but ask. "He may not think that I'd run Asgard into the ground or bring about Ragnarok or something but he's saying that I wouldn't make as good a king as Thor would. It would be different if he said Thor was going to be the king because he was the oldest but that's _not _what he said. He said that whoever would make a better king would rule and apparently that person is Thor."

But he didn't have a problem with it. He just wanted to be accurate for accuracy's sake. It was always important to know what the truth was so that he could be better able to hide it.

Frigga moved closer to him and he stood up so that she wasn't looking down at him.

"Oh, Loki, you have to know that that isn't true at all!" Frigga exclaimed.

"I just don't see any other way of looking at it save that Father decided to put the throne of Asgard in the hands of the person he thinks is least-suited of the two of us," Loki pointed out.

Frigga sighed and took his face in her hands. "Your father just understands Thor better. The two of them are really so alike. He always knows what to expect from Thor. He is a good man but he lacks your subtleties."

"And he expects Thor to be a good king?" Again the words were torn from his lips without his consent.

Frigga looked curiously at him. "You do not?"

"I think…" Loki hesitated. "Thor is very rash and headstrong, Mother. I just worry that he hasn't developed enough patience. Surely ruling must require a great deal if you wish to do it well."

Frigga nodded her head. "I hope that the throne and time will mature him. He is young yet and we will all be there to support him."

"I certainly have no intention of letting him ride off recklessly to war," Loki agreed.

"You know that your father and I love you very much, Loki," Frigga said again. "Thor becoming king does not change that and it does not mean that we love him more."

Loki smiled at her but said nothing.

Frigga sighed. "Your father is looking for you. He's in the throne room."

"I will go to him presently," Loki said, leaving the library and making his way to his father.

Odin was pacing when Loki arrived.

"You wanted to see me, Father?"

"Ah, yes," Odin said, nodding and turning to face Loki. He stopped pacing. "It's hard to believe that in only a few more days I shall set aside the crown forever and swear fealty to my son."

"I can hardly believe it either," Loki said, forcing a smile.

"You will stand beside him, won't you, Loki?" Odin asked. "He will need a great deal of support in his early days as king. I know that I certainly did."

"I will do what I can to protect Thor and this realm, Father," Loki agreed. Whether or not anyone would agree with the actions this duty forced him to take was another matter. "But surely you would be a better advisor than I. You're centuries away from your final sleep at least!"

Odin chuckled at the alarm he couldn't quite conceal from his voice. "Have no fear, my son, those days are quite distant. But I am the current king and that makes it unwise for me to advise the current king. If I wished to continue to rule then I could do that very well on my own without speaking through my son. I fear he would not wish to stand against me as he would you if he disagreed with the counsel he was being given. He needs to learn to stand on his own without relying on me and the appearance of his legitimacy as king would be hurt if I were to stand at his side. Fortunately, we have you and I know you will be as fine an advisor as Thor could wish for."

"An advisor, yes," Loki said slowly. "The silver tongue whispering into the ear of the king."

Odin peered at him closely. "Is something the matter, Loki?"

"What could possibly be the matter?" Loki prevaricated.

But Odin was not easily deceived. "I have said before that you and Thor were both born to be kings and I meant it. Were either of you to be my only heir I would know that the realm would be in good hands, though not as good as the realm will be with both of you. I do intend for the two of you to rule the realm together but there can only be one king of Asgard."

"And that's Thor."

"He is the oldest," Odin said.

"And yet somehow that didn't lead you to declaring him to be the king on the spot when we were both children," Loki noted. "If you were waiting to see who would be the better king and not wanting to claim Thor as your heir in case it wasn't him then it wouldn't lead you to relying on age now. Surely you don't believe that we would make literally equally good kings."

"With Thor as king and you as advisor or you as king and Thor as advisor, the same people would be ruling," Odin began, "though I believe that Thor would be more open to your advice than the other way around. You do not always have the most respect for Thor's strengths."

Loki wouldn't go that far. He understood that Thor was the stronger of the two in combat and he would need to rely on illusions if he wanted to beat him but while that would be useful in war or in deterring a war, it didn't really have a great deal to do with making the right decisions for the realm.

"And a good king must have not only the loyalty of his people but their affection," Odin continued. "It requires hunting expeditions and never disappearing too soon from a feast. It is endless balls and visits with foreign dignitaries."

"You do not think that I am capable of playing such a part?" Loki asked, stung.

"I do not believe that it would come naturally to you. It would be playing a part, no matter how expertly, while Thor thrives under such circumstances. He lacks patience, yes, and that is a problem but he will learn it in time."

Loki forced away any reaction he might have had to his father's words. Odin might as well have just said that Thor got to be king because he was the Asgardian ideal and been done with it. The king was the face of Asgard and even Loki could think of no one who so embodied everything that the realm valued than his brother.

"Yes, perhaps in time," Loki agreed. "But Father, does it really have to be now? You yourself have said that you have many centuries left in you. Why step aside for Thor now? Wouldn't it be better to wait until he was worthy of the throne and not hope that he doesn't make too many mistakes and start a war or something while we hope that the throne itself will eventually rend him worthy of it?"

Odin was quiet and Loki was relieved to find that his father was at least considering his words.

"It is hard to say what might teach him patience and a greater maturity," Odin replied at length. "If over a millennia of living and his princely duties haven't done it, who can say what will? Am I to wait, potentially forever, for this to happen? No, I do believe the throne will mature him nicely. It did with me, after all. And I know that Thor will be in good hands with you. You two are so very different that you complement each other's strengths and weaknesses nicely."

Odin didn't want to wait around potentially forever for Thor to be worthy of the throne but apparently that was a better plan than just giving it to Loki. Well, his mind was well and truly made up on the issue, wasn't it!

Loki politely took his leave and left. He wandered around the palace, more convinced than ever of the need to do something drastic to stop Thor from ruining everything since no one was willing to listen to reason.

Eventually, he came across his brother himself and Sif as they made their own way through the halls.

"Brother!" Thor greeted him exuberantly. "There you are!"

"Were you looking for me, too?" Loki asked.

Sif shook her head. "Not really but it's convenient we found you just the same."

"And why is that?"

"We wanted to tell you about the feast tomorrow!" Thor exclaimed.

Loki looked at him strangely. "There's…a feast virtually every day. Asgardians do love their feasts."

"This feast is for a Midgardian holiday," Sif explained. "It's called Christmas. Apparently people give each other presents and have a mighty feast."

"Are we giving each other gifts then? A little warning would be nice," Loki said, a bit waspishly.

Thor laughed and shook his head. "Maybe next year."

"Why are we celebrating a Midgardian custom that none of us has ever heard of anyway?" Loki asked sensibly. "It can't just be for another excuse to hold a feast because we do that every day anyway."

"Yes but now we have a reason outside of just the joy of feasting," Thor told him. "And, as future king, it 'behooves me to learn more about the other realms', remember?"

Loki did remember saying something about that. "By appropriating their holidays as an excuse to have a slightly themed feast?"

Thor nodded. "Yes."

Sometimes Loki really wondered why he bothered.

"If you don't like it, maybe you shouldn't have given him the idea," Sif said pointedly.

Loki's brow furrowed. "I would really like to see how this is being blamed on me."

"You're the one who told him that all these constant feasts are the same century in and century out and if he wanted you to actually stay at these feasts then the least he could do is offer up a little variety," Sif reminded him.

Loki frowned. "I didn't expect him to take me seriously! He never does. And I hardly suggested this."

"Well you didn't give him any other ideas so this it is. And I think it's harmless enough," Sif said, "since all we're doing is having a feast in honor of other peoples' celebrations. If someone were to want to do that with our celebrations then I would be fine with that."

"As would I," Thor agreed. "Celebrations shared just means more joy for all. How could that be a bad thing?"

"The celebration could involve the ritual sacrifice of small children," Loki offered.

Sif glared at him.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"Well any holiday that requires that will be one we won't borrow," Thor decided.

"Are you really so certain that this 'Christmas' doesn't involve that?" Loki asked. "You don't seem to know a whole lot about it."

Thor's grin wavered slightly. "Well…I can't imagine that it would…it all seems so festive!"

"People can get _very _into these kinds of things," Loki said solemnly, nodding.

"_Loki_," Sif said emphatically.

"I'm not suggesting that they _do_," Loki said, spreading his hands out in front of him. "I'm just saying that we don't know enough to say that they _don't_."

"They don't," Sif said firmly.

Thor seemed to have recovered. "We do hope that you will come to the feast tomorrow."

"I come to all of the feasts," Loki said neutrally.

"And stay longer than it takes you to scoff down dinner," Thor added.

"Does anyone really stay longer than it takes them to finish eating and drinking?" Loki asked. "I just happen to be able to do so faster than most."

"Please say that you will!" Thor exclaimed. "I have only a few more days left before I am king, after all."

Loki's lips thinned. "There will be other feasts. There will probably be more of them with your new habit."

"It won't be the same," Thor said.

"No," Loki agreed, "it won't be. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

"Was that a yes or not?" Thor wondered as Loki walked away.

Sif sighed. "I wouldn't get your hopes up, Thor."

It seemed that there was simply no getting around everyone discussing Thor's impending kingship and should the coronation proceed uninterrupted that wasn't likely to change anytime soon.

Loki forewent going to the feast that night – proving that he wasn't forced to attend the feasts – and just had food sent to his room.

Thor was right about one thing. After the failed coronation, things wouldn't stay the same. They couldn't. He just hoped that he would be ready for it.

* * *

Loki sensed the strange presence behind him and spun around, dagger at the ready.

There was a translucent man, likely a spirit, with a long reddish beard and a ram-horn helmet.

Loki knew him at once though, of course, they had never met.

"Grandfather," he greeted. "Your statue really is to your likeness."

"You do not seem surprised," Bor noted.

Loki shrugged. "I try not to. And as a magic-user myself, I know that what is possible often is beyond the imagination of the average warrior. And the most likely scenario anyway is that this is some sort of illusion though for what purpose I cannot guess."

Bor, or at least the image that appeared to be him, frowned. "I can assure you that I am quite real."

Loki raised his eyebrows. "I'm supposed to take the word of something that may or may not be real that you are real?"

Bor didn't appear to have an answer to that.

"Not to worry, though, I absolutely believe that you _exist_, I just don't have much faith that you are who you say you are," Loki said. He tilted his head. "Or who _I_ say you are at any rate. I don't believe you've claimed to my grandfather."

"I am indeed Bor, father of Odin and once King of Asgard," Bor said solemnly.

"And I'll just take your word for that, shall I?"

"I do not know how to convince you," Bor admitted. "I died long before you were born and so there is nothing that only the two of us would know that would convince you."

"I do not know that I would be convinced by such a secret either," Loki admitted, "seeing as how these things have a way of getting out. I would wager that I know at least half of the things that my brother believes only one other person who is not me knows. He's never been very subtle."

"Fortunately, I do not need you to be convinced of my identity since it really matters little," Bor said. "I am just here so that you will be prepared for what's about to happen and I thought that you would rather see me than Farbauti."

"Farbauti?" Loki repeated, confused.

"She is the deceased wife of King Laufey of Jotunheim," Bor explained.

Loki narrowed his eyes. "No, I know who she is even if she's been dead my entire life. I just don't understand why she would be the second choice to come here and talk to me about…something…if you weren't here."

"Well, as an Asgardian you don't really know a lot of dead people," Bor said, shrugging.

"Technically, even if you are who you say you are, I don't know you or that Jotun queen either," Loki pointed out. "I'm sure that I have other dead relatives ."

"Not all that many, actually," Bor replied. "Though you do at least have a great-grandfather. He always claimed that he was formed by a cow licking salty ice on the void but I don't know if he was actually serious about that – it was so hard to tell with him – or how he would even know."

Loki stared at him. "I'm sorry, _what_?"

Bor looked surprised. "I'm sorry, is this the first that you're hearing about this?"

Wordlessly, Loki nodded.

"How strange. Your father knows all about it, of course. I can't imagine why he wouldn't have mentioned this to you."

Normally, Loki would immediately begin asking himself what this meant and whether Thor knew but in this instance there was really no need. He tried to imagine Odin sitting either of them down and telling them where his grandfather supposedly came from and couldn't manage it. Odin was far too dignified for such a conversation.

He'd have to ask him about it one day.

"Next thing I know you'll probably be telling me that you don't know how I died!" Bor exclaimed, laughing.

Loki tactfully said nothing.

Bor narrowed his eyes. "You're not laughing. Why aren't you laughing? Do you honestly not know?"

"I can't say that I do," Loki said.

"What about Heimdall? You know how Heimdall came to be, right?" Bor asked rhetorically.

"I know that he's Sif brother and probably her half-brother since they really do look nothing alike," Loki answered.

"What has my son been telling you?" Bor asked mystified.

"Maybe you could tell me," Loki suggested.

"Heimdall was born of nine mothers and your Sif's mother was one of them," Bor explained.

"Are you sure?" Loki asked delicately.

"That is why I was told," Bor said. "They looked like they didn't want to have to tell me that because it sounded ridiculous but I didn't get the impression that they were lying."

"…How is that even possible?" Loki asked, mystified.

"I honestly don't know," Bor admitted."Some sort of magic ritual, maybe."

"I wonder if Sif knows about this," Loki said, making a mental note to ask her. He preferred to stay away from Heimdall if he could, especially since he started actively trying to avoid the other man's all-seeing gaze. "I wonder why nine women would even get together to try to have a child. Two perhaps but why nine? They could have had four or five children that way. But anyway, how did you die?"

"I was turned into snow by some sort of a spell," Bor replied. "I requested that your father find a way to fix me but I guess he couldn't."

"How very…unusual," Loki said, trying to be diplomatic.

Bor sighed. "It isn't the most dignified of deaths, that is true, but I have seen worse."

"You didn't tell me why you think this Farbauti would be someone who would come to visit me," Loki reminded him. "What does she have to do with me?"

"It was just an example," Bor claimed. "But on to why I'm here. I'm rather concerned about you, Loki."

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Concerned about _me_? Shouldn't you be concerned about, I don't know, all of Asgard given that Thor's coronation is next week and he is in no way ready?"

Bor waved his hand dismissively. "I'm sure it will all work out. And even if it won't, I'm still here for you and not for him."

Loki sighed. "Fine. Tell me what I'm doing that's so much worse than Thor ruining the entire realm will be."

"You are conspiring with our ancient enemy and committing treason to let them into Asgard," Bor said severely, any previous trace of good humor gone from his countenance.

Loki made a face. "Well when you put it like _that_…"

"How else could you possibly put it?" Bor demanded.

"I am attempting to save all of Asgard and Thor himself from his own folly."

Bor shook his head. "You truly have a gift."

Loki smiled. "Thank you."

"I do not like this path that you are heading down upon. It carries many dangers and if things continue the way that they are heading now then I do not think that any of us will like the outcome, yourself included," Bor warned.

"Are you saying that I should just let the coronation happen?" Loki asked flatly.

"Honestly, yes, but I know that it won't be that easy. That is why you will be visited by three spirits tonight who will show you the past, the present, and the future and try to get you to change your ways."

"Are you one of the spirits?" Loki asked.

Bor shook his head again. "No. I said that you _will _be visited. I'm already here."

"That's four spirits then and I didn't sign up for that," Loki complained.

"You didn't sign up for any of this."

Loki rolled his eyes. "That's even worse then! And why tonight?"

"It's Christmas Eve."

Loki stared at him. "You cannot be serious."

"I'm afraid I am. Christmas, though it is not celebrated in Asgard, is traditionally the time for these kinds of things. We can only be thankful that Thor's coronation is after that," Bor said.

"Am I even awake right now?" Loki wondered.

"Is that why you're taking this so calmly?" Bor asked. "You believe yourself to be unconscious?"

"No, I just _wish _that I was unconscious," Loki replied. "I'm fairly certain that I'm awake. I just don't find visits from spirits as oddly as other people do. Be grateful that you're not visiting Thor. He'd probably try to kill you. Again. And as a former king and non-treasonous citizen of Asgard, that in and of itself would be treason and get even him banished for a bit. Actually, that might solve my future of Asgard problem…"

Bor looked askance at him. "I'm just going to go before you figure out a way to actually make that happen."

"I'm just saying, it would certainly change the path I'm on. No Jotun or anything."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Loki was sitting up reading when the second of the spirits appeared.

It was impossible to say just how old the spirit was as it had both a youthful and ancient appearance. Loki was sure that such a thing could be said about pretty much anyone he knew save those who actually had an old appearance such as Odin but even then they didn't look anywhere near how old they _actually _were.

"Oh, are you not sleeping?" the spirit said, disappointed. "They are usually sleeping."

"Why would I go to bed when I knew that you were coming?" Loki replied. "That's just rude."

"I hadn't thought of that," the spirit admitted. "Everyone else does."

"Manners are becoming a rare commodity, it seems," Loki said. "So you are here to show me the past?"

"Your past, yes," the spirit nodded. "You don't seem surprised."

"I was told about this by someone who may or may not be my grandfather earlier tonight," Loki said. "Why would I be?"

The spirit shrugged. "Most people are."

"And for most people you take them to all of their Christmases, right?" Loki asked. "Somehow for me I don't think that would have the same effect since they were literally the same as any other day for me."

"Usually that is the rule, yes, but for you we are willing to make an exception," the spirit said. "Even if we had hundreds of years to work with, why limit ourselves? I might as well take you to every May 18th just because."

"Please don't," Loki requested. "I have had an awful lot of those and, while I'm not positive, I suspect that it was just not that interesting of a day."

"I won't," the spirit promised. "Are you ready to go?"

"Would it make that much of a difference if I weren't?" Loki asked.

"It might delay it by a few minutes," the spirit offered.

Loki sighed. "No thanks. Though I really don't see what you're going to try and convince me of. Will you show me that rare moment of Thor behaving in a manner that befits a king?"

"Take my hand and you will see," the spirit said, holding out its hand.

As Loki took it, he idly wondered if instead of the 'Ghost of Christmas Past' he should think of it as 'the Ghost of Loki's Past.'

The moment their hands touched, the window flew open and the two of them slowly floated off the ground.

Having seen Thor flying around with Mjolnir for what seemed like forever, Loki was not at all disconcerted by this but the spirit seemed a little disappointed at his lack of reaction.

They seemed to be flying into some sort of a void that had appeared in the dark Asgardian sky and Loki tensed but didn't feel anything was wrong and so when they landed back inside the palace Loki wasn't too alarmed.

"Home again?" Loki asked.

"Look," the spirit said.

Frigga was walking into the room holding a small dark-haired baby. That was him, of course.

Odin was sitting on the floor speaking to a small blonde child.

"Thor," Odin was saying, "how do you feel about having a little brother?"

Thor wrinkled his nose. "I don't want a baby brother."

"I would like to state that, for the record, this does not surprise me in the slightest," Loki declared.

"Why not?" Odin asked.

"Babies are _boring_," Thor complained. "They don't do anything. And they always cry!"

"Well this baby never cries," Frigga said, smiling, coming into Thor's line of sight.

"I'm not surprised to have been the good baby when I was younger, either," Loki said smugly.

The spirit looked a little incredulous. "Really?"

"Really."

Thor looked suspiciously up at her. "Why do you have a baby?"

Frigga carefully sat down beside him and her husband, still holding baby Loki. "This baby isn't just any baby, Thor. It's a special baby."

Thor's eyes lit up. "Ooh! Can it fly? If I hold it can _I_ fly?"

Odin chuckled. "He just will not let that one go, will he?"

"No, he doesn't fly, Thor," Frigga told him gently.

"Then what makes him so special?" Thor demanded.

"He's your brother," Frigga informed him.

Thor turned to his father, betrayed. "But I said I didn't want a brother!"

"It's a little late to change our minds, Thor," Odin said wryly.

"Having a brother is a very good thing, Thor," Frigga insisted. "And not just because this one is quiet."

"Why?"

"A brother is someone that you get to play with and go on adventures with when you're older," Frigga said. "He will be someone who looks up to you and you have to set a good example for."

"I do _not_," Loki denied.

"And since he's littler than you you're going to need to protect him," Odin added. "Do you think you can do that?"

Thor's puffed out his chest. "I won't let anyone hurt this baby!"

"Once I was old enough to walk, I really didn't need any kind of protection and certainly not from Thor," Loki said, wondering vaguely why he was telling the spirit all of this. He really didn't care what it thought after all.

"Does that mean that you're okay having a brother after all?" Frigga asked, a smile spreading across her face.

Thor nodded solemnly. "I wish I would have known about him first but I think I'm okay with it."

"We're very glad of that, son," Odin said.

"What's the baby's name?"

"We're still trying to figure that out," Odin told him. "Would you like to help us?"

Thor bounced up and down in his seat excitedly. "I get to name the baby?"

"You get to _help_," Odin corrected. "Do you like the name Baldr?"

Thor made a face.

"Not Baldr then," Frigga noted. "How about Hermond?"

Thor stuck out his tongue.

"Tyr?" she asked.

Thor blew a raspberry.

"Vidar?" Odin suggested.

Thor put his tongue back in his mouth but shook his head.

"What about Loki?" Frigga asked.

Thor tilted his head to the side. "I like it!"

"Loki it is," Odin said affectionately, rubbing Thor's hair before gently reaching over to stroke Loki's cheek. "I'm glad he liked that one. We were running out of names."

"Would you like to hold him?" Frigga asked.

Thor suddenly looked a little nervous. "Are you sure I won't break him? I always break things."

"We trust you to be careful," Frigga said. "And we'll be right here. Now hold out your arms."

Thor did as instructed and Frigga placed Loki into his arms.

Thor stared down at him for awhile and then Loki smiled at him.

"He likes me!" Thor said happily. "I'm going to be the best big brother ever."

"That went surprisingly well," Odin remarked. "Maybe this can work after all."

"It will," Frigga said serenely. "They're brothers, after all."

Adult Loki frowned at that. "What does that mean? They were worried about having a second child? I suppose that's not hard to believe. Thor may be what people think of when they think of the Asgardian ideal but I would not have pegged him for being a brother."

"You've been his brother for centuries, though," the spirit said, confused.

"I know, it surprises me, too," Loki said. "But what is this? I know that my brother loves me. I love him, too. That's not what me needing to stop his coronation is about."

The spirit merely held out its arm.

When Loki took it, they went flying again and this time they landed in Loki's room.

Thor was there, a few years older, but Loki wasn't. A horse was, however, and Loki got the sinking suspicion that he knew when they were.

Thor was staring at the horse uncertainly. "Loki?"

Loki the horse, being a horse, said nothing.

"Loki?" Thor asked again. He reached out a finger and gently poked Loki. "Loki, is that you?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "Of course it's me! He just watched me turn into a horse right in front of him! He can be so _daft _at times. And I told him I was going to anyway."

"He's never seen you transform before, has he?" the spirit asked. "It's not surprising it takes him a moment to adjust."

Getting no answer from the horse, Thor reached out to poke him again and the horse attempted to bite his finger.

"Hey!" Thor objected. He tilted his head. "I wonder if that was a Loki thing to do."

The horse gave Thor a deeply unimpressed look.

"Okay, I know that _that _was a Loki thing to do!" Thor exclaimed triumphantly. "I got it! You're Loki."

The horse gave him another look.

"Well, no, I don't think that was obvious at all," Thor argued. "I mean, I know you said that you were going to turn into a horse and I did watch you glow green and then there was a horse right where you were standing but…actually, putting it like that makes it seem like it might have been kind of obvious after all. But still! My brother! A horse! That's not the kind of thing that happens every day."

The horse preened.

Thor laughed. "Yes, yes, Loki, it's all very impressive. I already know you're brilliant with magic which is good because you still need a _lot _of work with a sword. No, that wasn't an insult! I just said you were good with magic, how is that an insult? But listen, can you change back now? This is getting a little weird."

The horse wouldn't look at Thor.

"You tried?" Thor looked worried. "That's not good. That's not good at all. I'd better go get Mother."

The horse jerked back at that.

"You don't want me to tell her? Why not?" Thor demanded. "You don't want her to be disappointed that you broke your promise about not practicing magic unsupervised? Well…you shouldn't have broken your promise then! You know she'll be able to help you. And what if you had gotten yourself killed or something? Well, how would I know how you can go about getting yourself killed shape-shifting? Do I look like I have any magic? Oh, don't look at me like that! Fine. I won't tell her. But if we're not going to tell her then we're going to need to explain why you're not here. Mother and Father will be expecting you at dinner, you know."

The horse gave Thor a pointed look.

"You want me to lie to them?" Thor asked, looking taken aback. "Well…I suppose that that is the obvious thing to do if we're not going to tell them the truth but…I'm _really _not good at lying. And I'm worse at coming up with a lie. Couldn't I just tell them I don't know where you are?"

The horse stared at him.

"No, you're right, that would start a search of the palace and then they'd find you and they'd either know or put you in the stables. And we really don't want that. After all, you appear to be a female horse – not that I was looking! – and if we put you in the stables you might end up getting pregnant," Thor informed him. "It could happen! And then would you be able to change back? What if you did? Would you still be pregnant with a freak horse baby? Would you just give birth to a regular horse?" He snapped his fingers. "You know, I bet that's how Sleipnir was born! A mage turned himself into a horse and had a horse-child and now that child has eight legs. Granted Sleipnir is really useful but do you really want to give birth to an eight-legged horse? That seems kind of painful."

The horse blinked at him.

"How is that being ridiculous?" Thor demanded, offended. "I'm trying to look out for you here and now I'm being ridiculous! Okay, fine, I'll try to come up with something that won't risk making me an uncle. How about I say that you're not hungry? No, wait, then Mother always assumes that you're just getting to absorbed with your studies and forgetting about food and she makes you come eat anyway. Well, what if you aren't feeling well? Right, then she would want to check on you."

The horse blinked again.

"I am trying!" Thor protested. "This isn't easy for me! Well, what if I say you were kidnapped by trolls? No, that would make the kingdom even more worried. You ran away from home? Oh, you come up with something if it's so easy! Oh. Well, that might actually work. I'm going to go tell Mother. Don't go anywhere. Of course, she'll probably see right through me because you know I'm terrible at lying but I'll try!"

Thor ran out of the room.

The horse just shook his head.

"I tend to think that Mother did see right through him but decided to humor him since it was remarkably easy to stay out of sight for the week it took me to turn back and nobody came looking for me. And Thor really is a dreadful liar," Loki said thoughtfully.

"You know, he's rather good at understanding you even when you can't speak," the spirit said. "Assuming he was right about what you were trying to convey to him?"

Loki sighed. "He was right. So Thor knows a little about me after several hundred years of being in each other's company every day."

"I'd say it's more than a little," the spirit replied.

Loki shrugged uncomfortably. "I'm still not planning on sabotaging the coronation because of any issue I might have with Thor. If anything, the more you try to stir up affection for him in me the more determined I will be to protect him. This is rather counterproductive, I fear."

"We shall see," the spirit said simply.

The scene changed again and this time Loki, human fortunately, and Thor were just on the cusp of adulthood and in the library. Loki was trying to read but Thor was lying down on one of the tables looking for all the world like he was undergoing some terrible torture.

"I don't actually remember when this was," the present Loki confessed. "I suppose we shall see what happens."

"Hey Loki?" Thor asked.

"What?" Loki asked, not looking up from his book.

"Aren't you going to do anything?"

"I am doing something," Loki said patiently, turning a page. "I'm reading."

"But that's _boring_," Thor whined. "Why can't you do something exciting?"

"I happen to find this book to be very exciting."

"That's because _you're _boring," Thor accused.

"Well if I'm so boring I suppose that's why I'm not doing something exciting," Loki said reasonably. "Why are you even here anyway? You can go make your kind of excitement outside of the library."

"I could but you're here and I want to spent time with you right now," Thor explained. "I just want you to do something more interesting than read."

Loki's expression softened a little at that and he set the book down. "Alright then. Assuming that I'm not leaving the library as I'd really like to get back to this once you're done spending time with me, what would you like to talk about?"

"Ragnarok," Thor answered promptly.

Loki choked. "Ragnarok? Really?"

Thor nodded.

"Why would you want to do that?" Loki asked. "Isn't that rather morbid?"

"I just find it so _weird_," Thor said. "One day, far far far into the future, we're supposed to go to war with the Jotun and destroy all life everywhere."

"That seems rather short-sighted and irresponsible," Loki noted.

"Do you think it will be in our lifetime?" Thor asked.

Loki shrugged. "Who can say? We do live for a very long time so it's certainly possible. And if you die and go to Valhalla, as I'm sure you'd like to do, then you'll be around to fight in Ragnarok anyway."

Thor frowned. "I had not considered that. But I guess then I'd be dead so maybe I wouldn't mind so much. But then what happens afterwards? What if I die in the battle? Would I just come back at the end of the night? Would we all go to Hel? What happens after that?"

Loki shrugged. "I don't think anybody knows. All the afterlifes we know of are just sort of holding places for the dead until Ragnarok. After that…who knows? We could just cease to exist."

"I find that a little unlikely," Thor told him, shuddering a little. "And unpleasant."

Loki shrugged. "Pleasant or unpleasant, what will happen will happen. Maybe you could borrow the beliefs of another culture for what happens after Ragnarok. I hear that Midgard has dozens of choices. Or you could just make up your own."

"I can't just do that!"

"Then I don't know what to tell you," Loki said. "Personally, it comforts me to just think that Ragnarok will never come. It sounds awful."

"Wait a minute," Thor said suddenly, "you said 'as you'd like to do'. Do you not want to go to Valhalla, brother?"

"Not particularly, no," Loki said slowly.

Thor looked confused. "But why not?"

"Fighting and literally dying every day training and then a rowdy celebratory feast afterwards?" Loki sounded disgusted. "No thanks."

"But surely Hel would not be preferable!" Thor burst out. "It is said to be a most terrible place where people are punished for not dying in battle!"

"It strikes me as a little unfair that anyone who is not so fortunate as to have the opportunity to be in a battle would be punished eternally for it," Loki said. "And what if you're just too good in battle and nobody is able to kill you? It also makes our father's peace-keeping mission seem a little cruel since it is dooming countless souls to Hel instead of Valhalla. And a little short-sighted given that those form Hel are said to be going to fight on the side of the Jotun. Although I suppose most of those won't be warriors but they can certainly swarm our side!"

"Loki, I don't think you're thinking about this right," Thor said uncertainly.

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Point out the flaw in my logic."

"You know I can't do that but I still think that you're looking at this the wrong way," Thor said unhappily. "And that reminds me! If you don't die in battle then you won't be on our side during Ragnarok! I'll have to fight against you."

Loki snorted. "As if anyone could make me do anything I didn't want to do. I cannot imagine moving against my home. And we might yet be alive when Ragnarok strikes. Besides, what if you are just too good at fighting and so waste away from illness or age?"

Thor looked stricken. "That is a rather terrifying possibility. I suppose I can always go out and get into a fight on my death-bed."

"Unless your intention to get yourself killed so you could go to Valhalla was discerned and you were denied entrance because of that," Loki pointed out.

Thor threw his hands up in the air. "I really don't think it's supposed to be this complicated, Loki!"

"And I really don't think that this was thought out all that well but I think the rules of the afterlife are set in stone," Loki said indifferently.

"Maybe they should have put you in charge of designing the afterlife," Thor joked.

"It would certainly be a lot more logical if they did," Loki said. "But as it is…remind me never to die."

"I'll try," Thor said dryly. "Maybe I should give it a try, too."

"And risk winding up with me in Hel?" Loki asked rhetorically.

"I just can't win with you, can I?"

"No but you are welcome to keep trying," Loki said.

Thor was quiet for a moment. "I wonder what would happen if we just wiped out all the Jotun."

"Genocide, Thor?" Loki asked skeptically. "That sounds like a brilliant idea."

"I'm not saying we _should_," Thor said immediately. "I just wonder what would happen if we _did_. Then how would we have a Ragnarok with no Jotun to attack us?"

Loki shrugged. "Perhaps they'd rise up from Hel or Valhalla? Or perhaps when we'd try we would unleash Ragnarok right now. Destiny is a tricky thing and I don't know what would happen if we really did avoid it."

"Well I don't like prophecies," Thor said. "They're annoying and not fair."

Loki laughed. "How very profound, brother."

"It doesn't have to be profound to be true," Thor said stubbornly. "I wonder if Father is doing anything to avert Ragnarok."

"Well, we know he isn't wiping Jotunheim off the face of the galaxy," Loki said. "So that's something. I would hope that he be careful in his efforts if he is trying something. Doing anything to make someone prophesized to be our enemies have a good reason to hate us would obviously cause more trouble than it's worth."

Thor sat up and jumped off the table. "I don't want to talk about this anymore; I'm disturbing myself. Come fight with me!"

Loki gave him an annoyed look. "Thor, I told you I wasn't going to leave the library."

Thor nodded. "That you did but that was before you scared me with all this talk of Ragnarok."

Loki gave him an incredulous look. "Before _I _scared you? Are you kidding me? You're the one who brought it up!"

"Yes but I wasn't being all scary and weird about it!" Thor claimed.

Loki sighed. "Fine. I'll spar with you for a little but then I'm coming back to my book!"

"I'm willing to bet that I never did get back to that book," the present Loki said.

"You really don't remember this?" the spirit asked.

Loki shrugged. "Maybe vaguely. I'll bet it made a stronger impression on Thor."

"You're really not in favor of Ragnarok, are you?"

"Asgard and the Jotun going to war and wiping out all life everywhere?" Loki asked rhetorically. "Why would I be? Are you in favor of it?"

"Well, no, but I'm not Asgardian nor am I a Jotun," the spirit replied.

"I'm not your typical Asgardian," Loki said, unperturbed. "Now was there anything else you wanted to show me? Perhaps falling ill and Thor selflessly nurses me back to health?"

"Nothing like that," the spirit said, once more offering its hand.

This time Loki, looking much as he did presently, was sitting in a cave in his usual armor while Sif was all bundled up and shivering a few feet away.

"You're doing this on purpose," she accused.

"That's probably true," Loki agreed. "But could you perhaps be a bit more specific?"

"I may, in fact, be freezing to death," Sif said, "and you aren't even wearing a coat!"

Loki shrugged. "I'm not cold."

"It would make me feel better if you did it anyway," Sif told him.

Loki shrugged and then took out a coat similar to hers and put it on. "How's that?"

Sif considered. "Better. But I do wish Thor were here."

Loki rolled her eyes. "Don't you just?"

Sif glared at him. "And just what is so wrong about wishing Thor were here? He'd know what to do."

"Thor _never _knows what to do about anything that requires more than hitting something," Loki disagreed.

"Loki! He's your brother," Sif said heatedly.

Loki shrugged. "Well I didn't say he wasn't _good _at it. Credit where credit's due."

"Thor can do more than that and you know it."

"I don't see how lightning would help us any," Loki went on. "Unless you mean that it would create a fire and we would have more heat in which case I agree he could light quite the mighty fire but, as you can see, we already have one going."

"Well having him here certainly wouldn't _hurt_," Sif replied.

"Unless he insisted on trying to fight the storm or something," Loki muttered.

"Oh, he would not!" Sif exclaimed.

Loki gave her an unimpressed look.

"In his defense, he had had a _lot _to drink that night and I'm pretty sure you slipped him something. And I don't see why you're being so down on Thor anyway. This isn't like you."

"I'm perfectly fond of Thor," Loki claimed, "just not when there's no escape root for when he can get a little…much."

"Usually at your provocation," Sif pointed out.

Loki ignored that. "Regardless of whether it would be helpful to have my brother here, he is not here and so we must find a way out of this mess ourselves."

"Why aren't you cold?" Sif demanded suddenly. "I feel like I may freeze and yet you're not even shivering. Are you using your tricks to warm yourself but not me?"

"No," Loki told her. "I'm really not."

"I don't think I believe you," Sif said.

"Since I'm actually telling the truth this time, I'm almost wounded," Loki replied.

"You know I can't possibly take your word on that."

"I really don't know what it is," Loki told her. "I guess you get cold easier than I do."

"Loki, that would make sense if we were at home and I were cold and you were not but there's a good chance I'm going to get frostbite and you're only wearing your coat to appease me," Sif said.

"I swear that I'm really not using any sort of magic to protect myself," Loki said. "But I am getting concerned about you. Here, come here and let me warm you up."

Sif reluctantly stood and made her way over to him.

"Give me your hand," he instructed.

Sighing, she did so.

Loki ran his fingers across her palm and she shuddered.

"That's amazing!" she exclaimed, startled.

"So I see my 'tricks' have their uses after all," Loki said smugly.

"I never said that they didn't," Sif said. "But I feel as though I am back at home! Tell me, am I truly warmer or do I just feel warmer?"

"What difference does that make?" Loki asked.

"In the case of the first I can go about our mission without worrying about the weather but if it's the second I will not suffer because of the cold but it could still kill me," Sif pointed out. "And how long will it last?"

"It should last for at least a couple of hours. If you feel it wearing off, let me know and I'll recast it," Loki said. "And not to worry, Lady Sif, your temperature is actually much higher. Giving you the illusion of being warm when you're really freezing would be quite foolish since you would not be able to protect yourself from a threat you were not aware of."

Sif nodded. "Thank you."

Loki's eyebrows rose. "How painful that must have been for you!"

Sif glared. "There was nothing painful about that. You did me a service and I thanked you for it."

"Truly? It looked rather painful," Loki said.

"I am not in the practice of needing your aid so perhaps I am just not in the habit of thanking you," Sif suggested.

"Perhaps," Loki agreed. "It is strange to say that you acknowledge that my tricks have their uses, though."

Sif's brow furrowed. "Is it? Why would that be the case? I'm not blind. I know that we would not have made it out of Nornheim, for instance, without your aid."

Loki looked away. "Thor calls it my 'tricks.'"

"Well they are tricks," Sif said. "But that doesn't mean that we didn't need them."

"If they were so useful then why are they always dismissed as _tricks_?"

"Because they trick people, I suppose, or because it's just another form of the things you've been doing for centuries to fool people in less dire situations," Sif offered. "I do not know, Loki, they are just words. What does it matter what it is called?"

"The words matter," Loki said quietly.

"I do not understand you," Sif admitted.

"No, I don't suppose you do."

"But I am still thankful for this," Sif told him. "Perhaps you are using your magic to warm yourself after all."

"I have told you that I am not."

"I do not mean consciously. Loki, I do believe you that you are not intending to use magic. But still, if the weather here were so bad and you have the means to warm others, why not warm yourself? Is it really so inconceivable that such a necessary spell could be cast without your needing to focus on it?" Sif asked him. "I confess that I do not know much of such things but it seems to me that you are very good at them."

Loki couldn't help but smile at that. "Yes, that would explain things nicely, wouldn't it?"

"And even if all anyone wants to talk about when we return is how nobly I vanquished my foes, I won't forget that none of it would have been possible without you helping me now," Sif continued.

"I think I'll do my fair share of the vanquishing," Loki replied.

"But not the _noble _vanquishing," Sif countered. "Come now, you could kill more of them than I but none of them will be noble. I know you better than that."

"Oh, where's the fun in always being noble?" Loki asked rhetorically. "Or the sense, for that matter? Without me, you'd nobly get yourself slaughtered."

"And then nobly go to Valhalla which would be some consolation," Sif said. "But see? I am recognizing your contributions."

"Apparently I am contributing to keep you from Valhalla," Loki said. "Most people would not thank me for that."

"I turned down the Valkyrie for a reason, Loki, and do not intend to place myself under their power just yet. I cannot possibly leave the land of the living until I have fully rooted out any doubt about my abilities and crushed them beneath my boots," Sif declared.

"I'm certain that you will and will manage marvelously. But in that case, my lady, I'll just have to always harbor a little doubt of my own to keep you here with us," Loki told her.

Sif gave him a considering look. "I can't decide if that's sweet or offensive."

Loki smiled. "I wouldn't want to change things up by allowing you to understand me, now would I?"

The Loki who was watching this past scene looked over at the spirit in confusion. "What was the point of that? It was a nice moment between us before we completed our mission and returned to Asgard and, as she predicted, people were far more interested in hearing about all the limbs she cut off than my own contributions. She said that they identified with her more easily because they could more easily use a sword to hack off an arm than to use magic to fell an opponent."

"Perhaps it is just a reminder that you do have people in Asgard who care about you other than your family," the spirit suggested.

"I never said that I didn't though Sif's loyalty – as has everyone's – has always been more to Thor than to me. She loves him even if she will not admit it and sooner or later he'll realize just what he has chooser her as his future queen."

"Perhaps. The future is a tricky thing and even you cannot see everything that is in everyone heart when feelings get in the way. Loki, you stand to lose much if your plan does not work out the way you hope it will. And given that your plan involves letting Asgard's ancient enemy into the palace, it seems inevitable that it will not."

"If the price of saving Asgard and perhaps the other realms from Thor's foolishness is losing everything myself then it is a price that I will pay," Loki said firmly. "Perhaps not pay gladly because it is not _my _foolishness that needs correcting but I will pay it nonetheless and try not to resent Thor too terribly for it."

The spirit looked almost disappointed as it offered its hand to him.

Loki grasped the proffered hand and then watched as his past self materialized in the palace kitchen with Volstagg.

"I don't understand why I'm here," the past Loki complained, crossing his arms as he watched Volstagg stuff himself.

Volstagg swallowed. "You're here because I asked you to help me out with something and you agreed."

"I really should have asked what you needed help with first," Loki complained. "You're a friend so I hadn't thought it would be anything too heinous."

"And is this so heinous?" Volstagg asked, gesturing around them.

"Well, no," Loki admitted. "But I'm not even sure what the point of standing here and watching you gorge yourself is."

"Why? Do you have something else you'd rather be doing?" Volstagg asked.

"I think that I could answer that question with a categorical 'yes, of course' no matter when you might ask me that or what I might be doing for the entirety of my life," Loki told him.

Volstagg raised an eyebrow at him. "Even when you're being lectured on all the mischief you cause?"

Loki just shrugged at him. "If I couldn't take a little lecturing, I'd try to get in trouble less often."

Volstagg laughed. "No you wouldn't."

Loki valiantly fought a smile. "No, I wouldn't."

"Very good," Volstagg said, nodding approvingly. "If you are going to be a trickster then be proud of it. There's nothing worse than a trickster with self-worth issues."

"Is that so?" Loki asked, intrigued. "And why is that?"

"Then the pranks get nasty," Volstagg said, shuddering.

"Speaking from personal experience?" Loki asked.

"I am not an only child and let us leave it at that," Volstagg replied.

"You know that now that I know that I can easily get the full story now that I know that, right?" Loki asked. "And even if you were lying about that, it will just take me longer."

"That is true but I have serious doubts that you are that invested," Volstagg replied. "Though your level of investment may have just gone up because I said that."

"No it didn't," Loki denied.

"And at any rate, if you do find out I wouldn't have told you so it really doesn't matter," Volstagg concluded.

"I'm…not sure that's right," Loki said slowly.

Volstagg blinked at him. "Really? Because I think it sounds an awful lot like something that you might say."

"Did I say that didn't sound right? I meant that that does sound ingenious. And like anyone who did that is just a truly wonderful person," Loki corrected himself.

Volstagg laughed again. "That's what I thought you must have meant."

"And so now I'm here. Standing by a wall and watching you eat," Loki said, leaning back against the wall.

Volstagg looked a little worried. "But you aren't just standing there, are you? You're also casting that spell to detract attention away from us?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "No, Volstagg. I came here for the express purpose of shielding you from view and yet I did not bother to do the one thing that I am here for."

"Well I just wanted to be _sure_," Volstagg said.

"And why, may I ask, do you need to be shielded?" Loki inquired. "We're in the palace. I live here. You practically live here. You're allowed to have the food. You're not actually stealing it. Well…I suppose you are in the sense that nobody knows you're taking it and you're taking precautions against them finding out but you don't have to be. Why not just openly eat?"

"I don't want people to think that that's all I do," Volstagg admitted, squirming a bit.

"Something tells me that hiding food like this is probably not mentally healthy," Loki mused. "But then again, I could say that about many things you and my brother like to do."

"Interesting how things are never not 'mentally healthy' unless you aren't fond of them," Volstagg noted. "Tell me, Loki, do you feel it is just not healthy to be different from you?"

"All of Asgard would be quite ill in that case."

"That's not actually an answer to my question," Volstagg pointed out.

"I know what's really going on here. Fandral's been making jokes again, hasn't he?" Loki asked knowingly. "You didn't see me hiding out when he was joking about me, did you?"

"Well, no more than normal," Volstagg admitted. "But that was completely different."

"How so?"

"They weren't about me and so they were funny," Volstagg said brightly.

Loki just rolled his eyes and settled down to watch Volstagg consume more food than Loki himself did in a week.

"I always have to wonder if that's some sort of special power he has," Loki commented, absentmindedly taking the spirit's hand again, "because I would not be surprised if that is magic. I might be a little surprised if it's not."

"I don't even know what I'm doing here," past Loki complained. This time he was standing with Fandral.

"You seem to not know why you go places with people a lot," the spirit noted.

"It does seem that way, yes," Loki agreed. He wondered how that always seemed to happen to him.

"You're here to help me get women to sleep with me," Fandral reminded him.

Loki just stared at him. "I'm sorry. I'm pretty sure that I must be hearing you incorrectly."

"You're not."

Loki sighed. "Damn."

"You did agree to help me," Fandral said smugly. "In fact, you promised most faithfully."

"Now you're laying it on a little thick."

"Thick and oh so true," Fandral said.

"How did you even get me to agree to this?" Loki wondered. "I mean, I do believe you but…I must have been mad. There is no other explanation."

"It might have also had something to do with the fact that I asked you when I knew you weren't listening to me," Fandral offered.

"And how could you possibly ensure that I was genuinely not listening and not just pretending not to listen?" Loki asked.

"I started off by giving you some background information and described, in great detail, the five best nights of my life that I would like to recreate someday," Fandral said.

"And if you start talking about those again, I am leaving," Loki threatened.

"But you promised!"

Loki was unmoved. "And I'm giving you fair warning."

"I suppose that is true," Fandral agreed.

"So what am I expected to do?" Loki asked. "And keep in mind that I reserve the right to say no to literally everything you ask me to do besides just standing here."

"Hm, I can work with that," Fandral said thoughtfully. "Just stand there. That's perfect."

"And…that is actually easier than I thought it would be. Even Volstagg wanted…well, that is neither here nor there," Loki said, smiling.

Fandral immediately looked over at him. "What did Volstagg want? Tell me!"

"I don't remember," Loki lied.

"But you just said that it was neither here nor there so you must remember!" Fandral reasoned.

"Unless the reason that I decided that it didn't matter was simply because I could not remember myself," Loki suggested.

Fandral glared at him. "I'm debating the merits of wasting hours trying futilely to get you to tell me."

"Well I want to know why you think there is any merit in trying futilely to do something," Loki replied.

Fandral shrugged. "I could be proven wrong. It's happened."

"So all I'm to do is just stand here?" Loki asked. "Am I here for company then? Surely Thor would love to accompany you here. Or Volstagg. Maybe not Sif."

"Volstagg always abandons me to go get food and Thor gets too much attention," Fandral complained. "And with Sif, people think she's my girlfriend now that she's no longer blonde and therefore people will not believe that she is my sister. Therefore you really are my best option here."

"For…again, company?" Loki prompted. "Why not go alone? This seems like a solitary activity."

"Well it's not," Fandral replied. "Can you try maybe pouting or something?"

Loki stared at him. "Pouting."

Fandral laughed. "Come now, you know how to pout! Surely this isn't that strange of a request."

"Pouting."

"You are very good-looking but not liable to want to waste your time here given what I had to do to get you to come," Fandral explained. "And girls like it when you pout at them."

"_Some _girls perhaps," Loki said distastefully.

"The kind of girls that I am looking to meet tonight, certainly," Fandral said. He shook his head. "No, wait, Loki, that's not right. That's a glare. That is _not _what I want! No one's going to come over here now!"

"I didn't stop glaring at him the rest of the night," the current Loki said with satisfaction. "I did keep my promise to stay, though. I really should know better than to agree to things just to make people who are annoying me go away. Particularly when those people annoying me are my friends or my brother."

The spirit didn't say anything but took Loki to another memory.

Loki relaxed when he saw that it was just his past self reading quietly with Hogun.

"This is a good time in your life then?" the spirit ventured.

Loki shrugged. "Honestly, I don't remember this particular time. Hogun and I have read together on a number of occasions. He's always nice and quiet so it all blends together in a pleasant haze." He tilted his head. "Actually, since I sometimes use silence as a weapon and Hogun is the only one who is quieter than I am it sometimes disturbs me to spend so much quiet time with him. I wouldn't want to be the loud annoying one for once – well, comparatively – but until I start to get ridiculously paranoid he and I can just enjoy the silence together. Thor could never manage that."

There was little point in staying and watching two people quietly reading and so Loki took the spirit's hand again and found his recent past self standing on a balcony gazing out at the beautiful scenery before him. He didn't seem happy.

Thor hesitantly approached him.

"Do you know what this is?" the spirit asked.

"No," Loki lied. "But I really have no wish to. I've seen enough. Nothing is going to change. Can we move on to spirit number three now?"

"Spirit number two," the spirit corrected.

"The ghost of my grandfather did, in fact, visit me," Loki said.

"And no, no we can't."

Annoyed, Loki turned his attention back to the scene in front of him. His past self wasn't acknowledging Thor's presence.

"Loki," Thor said, sounding almost hesitant.

Loki didn't answer.

"I don't know what you want me to say," Thor went on. "Should I apologize? I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't take anything away from you or cheat or rub your face in it or anything. I understand that you're upset. In your place, I know I would be. But this isn't…"

"This isn't what?" Loki asked quietly. "You think I should just pretend this didn't happen and go running off on another adventure with you?"

"This isn't fair."

"I quite agree with that and the least you could do is allow me some time," Loki snapped.

"It's been two days!"

"Oh, well if it's been _two days _then surely I must run around and celebrate with you!" Loki exclaimed sarcastically.

"That's not what I…I'm just concerned. How much time is appropriate before it becomes too much and thus appropriate for me to push the issue?" Thor asked.

"Longer than two days, I'd wager."

"This isn't about you, Loki. None of it was designed to hurt you," Thor said pleadingly.

"No, of course it isn't about me. It's about you, as everything is, and why not go out there to where all your adoring fans can't wait to see you showing off?" Loki suggested snidely.

"I picked up a hammer!" Thor burst out.

Loki shot him a poisonous look. "Well if you truly want to _trivialize _the situation."

"Loki, when Father said that Mjolnir had been enchanted so that only the worthy could wield it I thought it sounded brilliant because it was a very powerful weapon and presumably any of our foes wouldn't be considered worthy – or at least not many of them – and so whoever wielded it wouldn't have to worry about losing it and having the enemy pick it up and use it against us."

"Not everyone loses their weapons as easily as you do, Thor," Loki informed him.

"Of course I was going to try it! Why wouldn't I? We all do. Fandral and Sif and Volstagg and Hogun and, yes, even you! Why wouldn't I try it? I never expected that I alone of all the warriors in Asgard would be deemed worthy and to be able to lift it!" Thor exclaimed.

"I don't believe for a minute that you didn't think that you'd be worthy," Loki said.

"At the very least I didn't think I'd be the only one," Thor replied. "Loki, what does 'worthy' even mean anyway? Father didn't explain it. He could lift it though since he was the one who cast the enchantment maybe that explains that."

"So you and Father are both worthy and nobody else is. How very lovely for you."

"Worthy for what? Obviously the word 'worthy' sounds very positive but it could mean, I don't know, worthy to used as an Asgardian shield or something," Thor said.

Loki blinked at him. "Somehow I doubt that's it."

"And since the two of us are literally the only two people who tried it – and hundreds tried! – that were able to lift it I don't know why you're taking the fact that you are one of the many who can't as some sort of personal insult. You don't see anyone else sulking about it," Thor said, beginning to get frustrated.

"Perhaps they, like myself, are 'sulking' in the privacy of their own rooms but they have the luxury of not having the crown prince of Asgard barging in and interrupting their solitude."

"Crown prince?" Thor repeated, confused. "Loki, you know that Father hasn't made any announcements about anything of the kind."

"Yes, well he doesn't have to, does he?" Loki bit out. "After all, Father's worthy, you're worthy, no one else seems to be…"

Understanding dawned in Thor's eyes. "You're talking about the throne. But Loki, nothing ever said anything about-"

"It is a rather obvious conclusion to draw," Loki interrupted. "Tell me I'm wrong."

"I-I can't," Thor admitted. "Not because I believe you're right because I don't and I know you'd be a perfectly worthy king but none of us know what being 'worthy' even means!"

"You might not," Loki allowed. "But I do."

"Look, Loki, how about we just go and ask Father and he can tell us-"

"What?" Loki cut in again. "You think that I want to listen to my own father explaining to me that I'm not as good as you? Or worse, watch as he tries to lie about it? Nothing he'll be able to say will make me feel better and so what's the point? Perhaps even he wouldn't know what worthy means but I do and so it doesn't matter."

"You weren't _this _upset two days ago," Thor said slowly. "Loki, I really don't think that sitting up here stewing is doing you any favors."

"And what do you propose that I do?" Loki asked. "Go out and adventure with you and your friends?"

"See, you always do this," Thor accused. "When things are going fine they're _our _friends but whenever you get upset you disclaim them and suddenly they're just mine. I think they deserve a little better than that, don't you?"

"I could not care less what your friends deserve right now and, anyway, it's not as if they are ever around to hear it so the one who controls whether they know about this or not is you," Loki replied.

Thor closed his eyes briefly as if asking for patience. "You need to stop sitting in here and brooding about your wrongs. It's only making this worse. Come out and do something! Anything! Come adventuring with me and our friends. Turn the wine into snakes and terrify the servants! Go complain to Mother about how Father always liked me best! _Something_!"

"Why?" Loki asked. "Because you feel guilty?"

"I don't feel guilty because I've done nothing to feel guilty about," Thor insisted. "Even if you are right and Mjolnir means that I am worthy to be king and you are not I still haven't done anything wrong and it's not my fault. But I am worried about you, Loki, because you are my brother. Hopefully, I will never do anything to prove myself unworthy of Mjolnir so I am never going to be parted from it. You can't spend the rest of forever resenting me for this."

"I hardly think two days of being upset is akin to the rest of forever," Loki told him.

"Just…come on, please?" Thor asked quietly. "You know it's never the same without you."

Loki didn't want to but it was clear that he was softening despite himself. "Perhaps that's because you're too reliant on my skills and get careless without me around to cover for you."

For once, Thor didn't deny it. "Perhaps. You wouldn't want us to get ourselves killed because we foolishly leapt into danger without you to do something fiendishly clever to extricate us from the situation, now would you?"

Loki sighed theatrically. "I suppose not."

A big grin lit up Thor's face. "Then you'll come?"

"I believe I would not have a choice but to come along on your next adventure as you have no intention of leaving me be until I do," Loki replied.

Thor shrugged. "That does sound like me."

"How interesting that you find him worthy then but not now," the spirit remarked.

"It's not about being _worthy_," Loki argued. "I never said he wouldn't eventually be worthy of the throne even though I find it difficult to envision such a day. He's just not ready now. And how are such things as 'worthiness' determined anyway? It all sounds very sketchy to me."

"He was so worried about you when you were upset about not being chosen by Mjolnir," the spirit went on.

"That's overstating it a little."

"How can you so casually ruin things for him like this?" the spirit asked.

"You think it's so casual?" Loki snapped. "I know exactly what I am doing and what I am risking. I know that, as careful as I am, there is a chance I may be caught and have to face the punishment for treason. But I am doing this for Thor just as much if not more so than for anybody else! You've made it perfectly clear you don't agree but all the sentimental old memories in the world isn't going to change the situation!"

The spirit looked at him sadly for a long moment. "I'm really terribly sorry that you feel that way."

Loki narrowed his eyes. "What are you-"

The spirit snapped its finger and suddenly Loki was back in his bedroom. Feeling quite put-out, he grabbed his book and resumed his wait for the next spirit.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Loki set his book down once more as he sensed another spirit entering his room. This one was resembled Thor in size and had a fur-lined green robe with a wreath on his curly brown hair. There were icicles on the wreath that didn't appear to bother him although it was quite odd and there was now a great deal of festive food in Loki's room. He could only hope that it either wasn't real or would be taken away without a trace later as it would be a hassle to have cleaned up otherwise.

The spirit appeared disappointed. "You're not-"

"Sleeping, I know," Loki cut in. "You're the ghost of Christmas Present or something, I presume?"

"One of them, yes," the spirit said, looking a bit disconcerted. "I am actually the two thousand and tenth such spirit." He frowned briefly. "Although I am to serve as just the plain old the Ghost of Present with you since apparently Christmas isn't very big on Asgard or something."

"I would apologize but that really isn't my fault and I don't particularly see a problem with it," Loki informed him.

"Thank…you?" the spirit said uncertainly.

"Let me get this straight. I know that this is the year 2010 down on Midgard. Now, despite the fact that I'm sure Christmas wasn't literally celebrated every year since year 1, are you telling me that every single year there's another one of you?" Loki asked.

The spirit nodded proudly. "There are indeed."

"Why do you need so many? Are there spirits of every, I don't know, Leprechaun Day?" Loki asked rhetorically.

"Saint Patrick's Day," the spirit corrected. "And no, Christmas is special."

"I'm sure it is. Who are your parents? Does it take months to birth you? Do you all come out fully formed like Athena in those Greek myths? Is there an axe involved? Does your mother do nothing but be pregnant and give birth then recover before the next one? Why would she put up with that? I know I wouldn't put up with that. Do you even have conventional parents? Are you upset that you evidently miss out on having a childhood? What happens to you next year?" Loki shot off.

The spirit blinked. "You're making me dizzy. Allow me to confine myself to saying that I come into being the day after Thanksgiving when hundreds of millions of people begin to celebrate the Christmas season and I die the day after Christmas at midnight exactly. I have to warn you that, despite this all taking place in the early hours of Christmas, I may see fit to grow old and die before you towards the end of our trip."

Loki shrugged. "If you must."

"And by present I really mean 'in a few hours' since who wants to watch people sleep?"

"You do make a compelling case for being a spirit of near-future," Loki agreed. "Well, let's be off then. Are we going to be flying through the sky again? I did find that a bit unpleasant."

"Oh, no need to worry," the spirit assured him. "Just touch my robe and then you'll be able to see what we want to look at displayed on your floor."

"That sounds convenient," Loki remarked, reaching out to touch his robe. "Would you mind terribly if I have any of the food? This spirit conversing is making me a bit peckish."

"Not at all!" the spirit cried out, delighted at having the opportunity to share its merriment.

Loki grabbed a few grapes as he glanced down at the scene before him.

It was a typical Asgardian feast except the decorations were green and red and Fandral appeared to be standing underneath a plant hanging from the ceiling.

The scene zoomed in closer and focused on his parents.

"Well this is certainly a change in scenery!" Frigga exclaimed. "While I love a feast as much as the next Asgardian, I have to say that approve of altering the background a little. It makes these feasts seem new and fresh which isn't an easy thing after so many thousands of years."

"And the new foods he had the kitchens prepare, while they do look very odd, taste alright so I can only assume it is authentic or else the approximations Asgard have managed are still good enough," Odin added. "I saw those 'pumpkins' however, before they were processed and while these pies they have made from them are tasty, I would prefer not to think too much about what they used to be."

Frigga patted his arm. "Probably for the best, my husband. I find myself wondering how, exactly, Thor managed to obtain all of this. He has not spent much time in Midgard of late and they have largely forgotten us. Did he tell people who he was? Did he show up dressed in full battle armor and purchase his supplies like that? It would have been a most amusing sight."

Odin chuckled. "Imagine if they thought him some sort of invader and his demands were to be allowed to purchase food. I must confess that I wasn't sure what to expect when Thor came to me and told me he wanted to have more specialized multi-realm feasts but this is quite diverting."

Frigga glanced at an empty chair beside Thor and sighed. "I only wish that Loki would see the benefit of coming to the feast and not staying holed up in his room or the library. I'm a little concerned."

"It's only a feast," Odin told her.

"Yes today it is only a feast. And yesterday it was only a feast as well and all those other times he did not attend," Frigga pointed up. "Every isolated incident adds up and it has been adding up a lot more of late."

"What would you have me do?" Odin asked. "Force him to attend? Somehow I do not think that that would help and, at the end of the day, not attending a feast is perfectly within his rights. As long as he attends Thor's coronation feast in a few days then it really is not a serious concern."

"That's another reason I'm worried," Frigga admitted. "I know that Loki says that it is fine but it is so like him to hide his disappointment. I do not think he will be pleased to see his brother ascending to the throne."

"Loki loves Thor," Odin objected.

Frigga nodded. "Yes and so it is not as bad as it could be but…you did tell him he was born to be a king."

"And I meant what I said," Odin said. "But what can I do? There is only one throne. I was always going to have to choose sooner or later unless I wanted to just die with no heir and leave them to sort it out amongst themselves."

Frigga did smile slightly at that. "I seem to recall you seriously considering it at some point."

"Well it wasn't an easy decision," Odin admitted. "Loki is so much more strategic and clever than Thor but Thor has the heart of his people and a sort of moral certainty that I wish I could claim. He wouldn't be the one to…"

"I know," Frigga said softly. "I know. Thor is so much like you that it's easier to just leave the throne to him and trust that it would be the closest thing to continuing to rule yourself as you can come. But you know that Loki won't see it like that."

"I _think _Loki won't see it like that," Odin corrected. "I never know with him. I certainly _try _but I always have the right words for Thor and am never nearly as sure with Loki. How do you manage it?"

Frigga shook her head. "There is no secret formula. Loki and I are similar in a lot of ways just as you and Thor are. But Thor is the eldest and in many ways so much less complicated. He doesn't see the bond that Loki and I have and feel envious. You know you're going to have to talk to him."

Odin sighed.

"And you're going to have to tell him about-"

"Are you sure that's truly wise?" Odin asked. "Especially now?"

"We're running out of time and the longer we wait, the greater the chance that he'll react badly," Frigga said reasonably. "He will think it's shame."

Odin was quiet for a long while. "We have time yet, I think, but who can say what the future holds? You understand him better than I do, yes. Perhaps I will consider telling him. I must confess that I do not know how to do it, however."

"I don't think there's ever going to be a perfect way to say it," Frigga told him. "But while the first conversation will be very important, it is not all that matters. As long as he knows that we love him as much as ever – as much as _Thor _– and that that's not going to change I believe that it will all work out."

"I hope you're right, my dear," Odin told her.

The view from the room pulled back from the king and queen and started to go towards Thor.

The spirit glanced over at Loki. "I say, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Loki lied, taking great care to keep himself outwardly composed. There was no way that anybody, no matter how oblivious or how much they wished to, could deny that that conversation was about him. Loki wasn't in the habit of lying to himself (or if he was he was in the habit of being so very good at it that he wasn't consciously aware of it, that was a bit of a risk when it came to these things) but the news was rather…worrying.

Obviously his parents were keeping something from him. What was this big secret that they were so worried about how he would react and that he would need to be reminded that they loved him? He had never doubted that. Yes, over the years he had often thought that Odin favored Thor but Frigga was right that they really did have a great deal in common (except Odin was almost completely lacking in all of Thor's more annoying traits) so it wasn't as though he didn't understand.

They were lying to him. They planned on telling him soon but it didn't change the fact they were lying to them. He had lied to them – sometimes successfully! – many times over the years but somehow to have it be the opposite now was worrying. Why were they lying? What were they lying about? There were so many questions suddenly but they hadn't mentioned what they were lying about and now the spirit was moving on anyway.

But what could he do? Ask them, perhaps? They'd want to know why he thought they were hiding something. And there was no guarantee that they would tell him. He didn't want to be denied answers and perhaps lied to to his face. Not by his own parents.

His mind tried to generate possibilities but somehow he just couldn't think of anything. He briefly came up with 'maybe I'm adopted' but it was so patently ridiculous that he dismissed it. If he weren't the child of Frigga and Odin (or at least one of them and the other was _very understanding_) then why would he be raised as a prince and Thor's brother? It didn't make any sense. The king and queen of Asgard couldn't just decide to keep some random baby.

No it must be something else. Maybe, as much as it galled him, he'd just have to wait and see. In the meantime, he had no interest in displaying any sort of vulnerability around this infernal spirit.

"You know that he isn't going to come," Fandral said bluntly.

Sif glared at him. "Fandral!"

"Well he's not and there's really no use in pretending that he is. Or in pretending that we don't all know where Thor's mind is at tonight," Fandral defended himself.

Thor smiled a little. "I'm sorry for my preoccupation. It's just that Loki said he'd be here."

"He actually said that he's usually at feasts and that things will be different when Thor is in charge. He quite pointedly didn't say he'd be here," Sif corrected.

Thor shrugged. "I tend to take that as a 'yes' coming from Loki."

"And thus you are continuously disappointed when he does not show up," Hogun pointed out.

"Well maybe I didn't expect him to stay the whole time but I expected him to at least stop by for something to eat!" Thor exclaimed.

"By now, Loki probably has a deal with the kitchen staff," Volstagg said. "So don't worry about him."

Thor laughed at that. "Volstagg, how long did it take you to have such a deal with the kitchen staff yourself when you first came to the palace? By the end of the first day?"

"Please," Volstagg said, looking highly insulted. "I had one in place by the end of the first hour. The kitchen staff understands and appreciates those of us who truly enjoy life's finer things."

"Maybe, and this is just a thought, it would be easier for you not to worry so much about Loki if we weren't all sitting around his empty chair," Fandral hinted.

"I don't want him to show up and think that there is no place for him here amongst us," Thor explained.

"There are five of us here. He could sit by anyone but Hogun if we didn't save a space for him and surely he would appreciate the option," Fandral said.

Thor looked seriously at him. "If you really wish to move, Fandral, then I will not stop you."

Fandral sighed. "It was just an idea."

"My friends, truly you are too concerned about me," Thor told them. "I do not worry that Loki does not have enough to eat. I am just noticing that, ever since my father revealed that I would soon succeed him as king, Loki has been harder and harder to persuade to spend time with us."

"Such a curious correlation, that," Sif murmured.

"And somehow I do not think that my becoming king will make this any less of an issue. I know that things must change when this happens and so I do not want to lose what time I still have. As king I will not be able to go travelling to any of the nine realms on a whim to see what sport there is to be had. There will be great honor and privilege in taking the throne but some sacrifice, too, and so I would make the most of the time that I do have," Thor declared.

"You're _really _going to miss Loki shape-shifting and pretending to be a pack of enemies catching us unaware?" Fandral asked skeptically. "Because Loki is a good friend and whatnot but I am not going to miss that at all."

"Who is to say that just because Thor will be king Loki will not still come adventuring with us?" Sif asked rhetorically.

Fandral paled. "Oh, that is a good point. And Thor is the only one he even _considers _listening to."

Thor sighed. "I just wish I knew what to say. I try to address the issue but I do not really understand what it is or if there even is an issue at all. It's just that things are different and I do not like them. But if Loki understands better than I do then he is not being forthcoming."

"Loki not being forthcoming," Volstagg said, stroking his beard. "You're right; that is something truly worthy of alarm."

Thor laughed. "I just wish he had come today. It's _Christmas_."

"You realize that that really doesn't mean anything to us except for some different decorations, right?" Fandral asked. "You might as well say 'I wish he had come. It's _Saturday_.'"

"But it _is _Saturday!"

Loki just shook his head as the scene faded away. "Naturally they'd be more concerned with Thor being concerned about me than concerned about me myself. Though, to be fair, I at least am not burdening them with my petty concerns as Thor insists on doing."

"They are friends; of course they care," the spirit said firmly. "I must confess, I do not understand what is going on any better than Thor seems to."

"Thor never notices anything," Loki said disgustedly. "Certainly nothing that doesn't fit into his worldview."

"Such as?" the spirit prompted.

"Such as not everyone wants him to be king," Loki said, somewhat annoyed that he had to spell out the obvious.

"Why not?" the spirit asked. "You're his brother, aren't you? Is it that you want to be king instead?"

Loki shook his head. "No, it's not that I want to be king instead. Well…not exactly. It's more about how Thor was chosen to be king when he's clearly going to be incompetent at it."

The spirit nodded sagely. "Oh, I see how it is. If the incompetent one is chosen over you then that's got to say something pretty bad about you."

"Or about my father, the current king's, judgment," Loki replied. "I could accept that one day he would grow into a proper king. He has centuries, after all, and stranger things have happened. But today? I would make a better king than Thor without even trying. For one thing, I wouldn't provoke foolish wars over wounded pride and I can see my brother doing that all too easy. But all anyone can see when they catch wind of my discontent is petty _jealousy_."

"Did you tell anybody about this?" the spirit asked.

Loki gave him a look.

"Ah, petty jealousy, right."

"That and they simply disagree," Loki said. "But I don't understand why my father feels the need to step down so badly anyway."

"Surely you can find a way to stop your brother from becoming king if you feel so strongly about it that doesn't involve committing treason," the spirit protested.

"My father is the king and my brother soon will be. If I didn't clean my room when I was told to growing up I'm sure you could make a case for treason," Loki said wryly. "And don't you think I've tried? It's going to take something truly extreme to open their eyes and I'd prefer to stop this disaster _before _it gets people killed."

The spirit shook his head. "That sounds really complicated. I hope this helps somehow!"

"I doubt it."

"Hey, look at this," the spirit said, directing Loki's attention back to the floor where a bald black man with an eyepatch and the most nondescript white man Loki had seen in quite awhile were facing each other on opposite sides of a desk. There were red and green decorations in the room they were in.

"What?" Loki asked, surprised. "Who are these people? I suppose it's Christmas here but I don't know them. Are they even Asgardian? They don't look Asgardian."

"No, they're not," the spirit admitted. "And you don't, in fact, know them."

"Then why are we seeing them?" Loki asked. "You don't feel that showing me my family and friends took enough time? I won't tell if you won't."

"You _will _know them!" the spirit insisted.

"Will I care more about how they spend Christmas once we've met?" Loki asked.

The spirit didn't say anything.

"Your message sounded urgent, Director Fury," one of them said.

"Agent Coulson, what I'm about to tell you is highly classified and could be absolutely disastrous in the wrong hands," Fury began.

Coulson looked politely puzzled. "Sir, everything I've learned since reaching Level Five has been like that. Is there some reason for you to doubt me? I've never let you down when it comes to secrecy before."

"No, it's nothing like that," Fury assured him. "It's just…this time is different and I know you're going to want to go out and tell everyone and we will just…not quite yet. So I want to remind you before you know just how important it is that this not get out before the time is right."

"You're trying to increase the dramatic tension by not telling me, aren't you?" Coulson asked rhetorically.

"Is it working?" Fury asked.

Still looking perfectly calm, Coulson said, "Sir, I am about two seconds from jumping up and attempting to throttle you until you tell me."

Fury raised an eyebrow. "And I believe that you know just how well that would go, even not considering the height difference."

"Perhaps I should make that five."

"Coulson, we've found him."

He was clearly expecting some sort of big reaction but Coulson just repeated ,"Him?"

Fury sighed. "The guy we were looking for."

"Banner?" Coulson guessed.

"No and remember that, as far as the Council is concerned, we never lost him," Fury said, lowering his voice.

"See? I can keep secrets," Coulson said a little smugly. "Alright, I give up."

"That was easy. Normally you don't give up so easily," Fury said suspiciously.

"Well I figured that I could always keep guessing but there are more than six billion people on this planet and I can list an awful lot of them," Coulson replied. "And while half of those are women, if I use my phone it will more than make up for the ones who aren't eligible to be 'him.'"

"Steve Rogers, Agent Coulson. We found Captain America."

To Loki's trained eye, Coulson did not appear to react in any way.

Still, Fury smirked. "I knew you'd be excited."

"Tell me that you're not just teasing me," Coulson told him. "If this isn't a real thing then I might just have to quit."

"Don't worry, Coulson, you're far too valuable of an agent for that," Fury assured him. "We really did find him. Or at least the Russians did. But we got ahold of him first and we brought him back to New York."

"Captain America is back," Coulson said dazedly. "Is he alive? Can I see him? Do you think he'll sign my cards?"

"Yes, technically. I wouldn't be telling you this if I weren't going to let you see him. And probably eventually. From what I've heard, he seems like that kind of guy," Fury said.

"What do you mean 'technically'?" Coulson asked. "Is he in a coma? Brain dead? Is this like that woman from Planet of the Apes?"

"No, he's fine from what we can tell although with these things you really do not to speak to them in order to be sure," Fury replied. "It's the fact he was frozen for seventy years and so needs to be dethawed that's the issue. This isn't quite cryogenic freezing though it should be similar. We're having our scientists adjust their work to bring Captain Rogers back as we speak. Then we'll give him a period of adjustment before asking him to resume his fight against evil."

"I could help him catch up to the modern era," Coulson suggested. "I know his story better than anyone here."

"I thought you'd volunteer," Fury said, smiling. "Don't worry. Once Captain Rogers agrees to work with us I'll send him your way."

"This is probably the best Christmas I've ever had."

Fury laughed. "A new work assignment and you're set. I wish everyone was this easy."

"Oh, that was nice," the spirit said happily. "Didn't you think that was nice?"

"I don't understand very much about what just happened," Loki said. "So no, I don't think it's nice. I think it falls within the realm of 'I don't care'."

"I wish I could show you Captain America's Christmas," the spirit said wistfully. "But he spends this Christmas still frozen and awaiting his return to civilization so there's really no point in that. I know! I can ask the next spirit to show you a future Christmas. It might throw off the theme he's going for but I'm sure he'll make an exception."

"That's really not necessary."

"Oh, you're just saying that because you don't know how marvelous it will be!" the spirit said dismissively. "Let's try another one about a people you will one day meet."

Loki sighed and looked back down, hoping there wouldn't be too many of them.

A red-headed woman and a man with a slightly peculiar face were sitting on the floor in front of a fireplace eating food out of small white cartons.

"Now this is my idea of a proper Christmas dinner, 'Tasha," the male said. It was not Thor's from what Loki had seen.

"Even if we had to call three hours in advance," Tasha replied.

"Well that's why you plan ahead for these things. Remember a few years ago when we called too early and got dinner at four?" the male asked rhetorically.

"It was just like Budapest all over again," Tasha said fondly.

The male stared at her. "One of these days I'm going to work up the courage to ask you what exactly you remember happening when we went there."

"Not today, Clint?" Tasha asked.

Clint shook his head and shuddered. "I'm not nearly drunk enough."

Tasha picked up a bottle. "We could change that."

"Not both of us, I think, not tonight. Fury would kill us if we had another incident like the one last year," Clint told her.

"Like in Budapest," Tasha said, nodding.

"Now you're just doing it on purpose," Clint accused.

Tasha looked innocent.

"I know just what Fury will say. 'It is unbefitting of superheroes to cause that much public mayhem and unless you are planning on switching sides and haven't told me yet, knock it off.'"

"Superheroes?" Tasha repeated. "Is that what we are now?"

"Well if Tony Stark gets to be a superhero then I want to be, too," Clint said, crossing his arms stubbornly.

"Like Batman?"

"More like the Green Arrow, I think," Clint replied. "Because we both shoot things. With arrows. Lots of people shoot things with guns. Not Batman, though. At least I don't think. Not shooting to kill anyway. Although I do have much better fashion sense than he does."

"That might be because we're not big on the whole masks and secret identities," Tasha said. "We don't need to distract people away from our faces and voices with truly appalling fashions."

"Thank you, Tony Stark," Clint said, raising his carton in a mock-salute.

"We didn't wear masks before Iron Man," Tasha said.

"We weren't superheroes before Iron Man," Clint replied. "You heard that one reporter. Nobody said anything about superheroes before he did."

"He does have an ego," Tasha said thoughtfully. "But our job hasn't really changed since he came on the scene."

Clint shrugged. "I guess I just didn't know enough to properly classify us as superheroes then."

"Seriously, though? Green Arrow?" Tasha shook her head incredulously. "How very obvious."

"I take it you don't want to be Wonder Woman, then?"

"I want to be the Green Lantern. That ring is truly inspiring," Tasha said.

"I'd have thought you'd want Superman if you weren't going to go by gender," Clint said.

"That's a little too god-mode for my tastes," Tasha replied. "And I'd have to worry about everyone and their mothers having ahold of the supposedly very rare and difficult to obtain Kryptonite."

"We could always be the superheroes Hawkeye and Black Widow," Clint suggested.

"Nobody knows who we are," Tasha pointed out. "And with good reason!"

"Everyone knows who we are," Clint disagreed. "Also for good reason. Though perhaps they don't know us by sight. And just you wait until Tony Stark starts printing up comics."

"He wouldn't do tha-No, scratch that, he totally would," Tasha admitted. "But he doesn't like me – though he might put me in anyway since I'm quite hot – and he's never even met you."

"I'm crashing the next consulting session he has," Clint decided. "And I'm bringing my arrows."

"You realize that none of this has any meaning to me, right?" Loki asked, just to make sure that the spirit really was aware.

The spirit nodded. "I am aware. But here, let's go visit Tony Stark now so at least you'll be able to say that you know a little!"

"That's _really _not necessary."

The image on the floor shifted and a man with a small beard was lounging on a couch while a red- headed woman was sitting and doing paperwork.

"I'm bored," the man whined. This must be Tony Stark.

"You could always help me with this," the woman offered.

Stark rolled his eyes. "I said I'm bored, Pepper, and that's what you offer me? Really?"

"It would give you something to do," Pepper replied.

"I'd rather just complain to you about my boredom," Stark said.

"So I've noticed," Pepper said.

"Making you my CEO was the best idea I've ever had. I guess imminent death really does bring clarity," Stark remarked.

"Oh, is that what we're calling what happened?" Pepper asked sarcastically. "Because Colonel Rhodes and I were talking about that."

"You have no idea how weird it is that you won't just call him Rhodey like a normal person," Stark said.

Pepper said nothing, just continued to go through her papers.

"So I'm thinking about branching into comic books," Stark said.

"All of your merchandizing isn't enough already?" Pepper asked.

"This will be a part of my merchandizing. And no, it's not enough and it never will be because if you don't change things up now and then and keep the product fresh then sales will drop off. We did _wonderfully _this Christmas and I want to do even better next year," Stark said dreamily.

"I mean, between all the shirts and the illegal tie-ins with that Black Sabbith song-"

"Which we officially denied," Stark interrupted.

"Even though no one bought that denial," Pepper agreed, "and the pajamas and buttons and the signed photos and the _plushies_. I can't believe you have plushies."

"I can't believe you don't have a plushy of me. Why don't you have a plushy of me? If you had a plushy I would have one of you. Actually, I would probably have two and they would make out," Stark told her.

"Well I'm not a teenage boy so I don't need to have plushies of you make out," Pepper replied.

"Touché," Stark said, grinning. "But seriously, a comic book would be pretty great. I could be the hero and hire someone who will draw it and be brilliant so I don't have to do all the work but also listen to everything I do feel the need to contribute. And all of the villains can be based on people I don't like or who happened to annoy me that day."

"Iron Man comic books," Pepper mused, shaking her head. "You know, Tony, at some point even you're going to have to admit that this is all getting a little much."

"Maybe," Stark said. "But not just yet. Not for a long while yet. And what is the point in being a superhero if you can't capitalize on it?"

"You're the one who started calling yourself a superhero," Pepper pointed out.

"And thanks to my brilliant marketing campaign and media handling, now everyone else is calling me one, too," Stark said happily. "It would get dull if it was just me and no one else after awhile so you'd have to be in it, too."

"Tony, you need my permission to do that," Pepper said patiently.

"Who is to say that I don't already have it?" Stark asked flippantly. "You have signed a lot of forms over the years. Maybe one of them included a release form about using your likeness however I see fit."

"I know that I didn't because, unlike you, I actually read everything placed before me," Pepper said pointedly.

"Hey, I always read everything that's placed in front of me if it wasn't placed there by you," Stark replied.

"Because you know I read everything first."

"I also always signed what Obadiah gave me which he really could have taken advantage of over the years, come to think of it," Stark said thoughtfully. "Don't betray me and turn evil, will you, Pepper?"

"I promise," Pepper said solemnly.

"Of course, what I really need is some sort of real-life Justice League except with a less stupid name and no one like Aquaman is allowed anywhere near it," Stark said, switching subjects. "Something like the Avengers Initiative would be _perfect _if Fury would ever just admit that it's a thing and let me join."

"Well you know all the reasons it's not currently active, not the least of which is the lack of other superheroes available," Pepper said reasonably.

Stark made a face. "I hate it when you get all _logical _on me. What I wouldn't give for the imminent end of the world."

"Taken out of context…no, even in context that's a pretty terrible thing to say, Tony," Pepper said mildly.

"And it's Christmas, too! Is a near-apocalypse really too much to ask?"

"I think I might like him," Loki said, surprised. "I hope he gets his near-apocalypse."

"I'm sure I wouldn't know because I can't see the future," the spirit said shiftily.

"But you can see enough of it to see tomorrow and, based on your expression, whenever he does get his wish," Loki said. "Well good for him then. Are we done?"

"No," the spirit said cheerfully as the scene changed again.

A man with a wild, hunted look about him was sitting down in front of a computer and trying not to look jittery.

"Who is this?" Loki asked, tired of not knowing who the people he was seeing were, even if he didn't particularly care about the answer to those questions.

The spirit looked delighted that Loki was taking an interest. "This is Bruce Banner and he's about to call his girlfriend Betty Ross."

"On the computer? Interesting," Loki said, a little confused. Then a girl's face popped up on the monitor and it made a little more sense. As far as he knew, phones didn't do that. Or if they did the screens were still smaller.

"Bruce!" Betty said, her face lighting up.

Bruce looked a lot happier to be seeing her as well.

"I can't believe you actually called," Betty marveled.

Bruce looked a little hurt. "I said I wouldn't, didn't I? I don't want you to think I'm a promise breaker on top of everything else."

"I know that you wouldn't blow me off unless something really big happened and then I'd hear about it from Dad," Betty said. "It's just…well communication is pretty difficult when you're on the run so even though we planned this it's hard for me to believe that this is really happening.

"It's happening," Bruce confirmed. "I just hope that nobody picks up on this so I won't have to sneak out of the country."

"I wouldn't worry," Betty told him. "I mean, be safe, of course, but I think you'll be okay. It's Christmas so all of the really good people are taking the day off and everyone else is really only half-assing it."

Bruce laughed. "Ah, yes, I remember what working during Christmas was like."

"Like you ever had to work during Christmas," Betty said, laughing and rolling her eyes.

"Well, no," Bruce admitted.

"Even my Dad is, for once, not really focused on finding you," Betty continued. "Though he is in the other room and if he were to walk in here and see or hear you then that will probably change. And then he'd sit me down for another talk about how I really shouldn't be dating wanted fugitives and I'll point out that technically you haven't been charged with anything and he's persecuting you. He'll say that it's not about his insane need to control my love life and where is that even coming from anyway and how no matter how much he wants to dissect you it's really about public safety for when you hulk out. And then I'll point out that if he's so worried about you hulking out then maybe he should stop adding a bunch of stress by hunting you across the planet and since you haven't hulked out since you were in Harlem _anyway_ clearly his 'public safety' argument isn't valid."

Bruce was clearly trying not to laugh. "Wow you can really pinpoint exactly how that argument will go."

"We kind of have it a lot," Betty said, shrugging. "Sometimes just to change it up I throw it things about how he's disappointed I didn't join the military or that he wasn't home enough when I was a kid or something like that."

"Well I'm sorry to cause you family conflict," Bruce told her.

"Hey, you're not the one chasing him across the planet so I think that one's on him," Betty said. "Though you are the one who I can't seem to stay away from despite the many, many reasons us getting back together was a bad idea."

"Well, can't stay away from metaphorically speaking," Bruce amended. "Is there a worry that he'll come in?"

"Nah," Betty said. "A few days ago I set him up to walk in on me doing something he would have rather not seen but that won't be _too _traumatizing, don't worry, so he should be knocking for at least the next week, week and a half."

"I'm touched by your commitment to our relationship," Bruce told her.

"You should be!" Betty exclaimed, grinning. "It might not have been too traumatizing but it was still mildly traumatizing for the both of us."

"If I were ever a fugitive wanting to keep in touch with a loved one, I could just project an illusion of myself into her room. In fact, I could do so even if she were surrounded by people who were hunting me," Loki remarked.

"Bruce can't do that," the spirit said.

"I know," Loki said. "I just thought I'd mention that I can. Thor couldn't. Sometimes having magic really is a wonderful thing. Actually having magic is a wonderful thing all of the time. I just sometimes feel the need to mention it."

The spirit shrugged. "That's alright. I sometimes feel the need to brag about the fact that I can see what anybody is doing in the near past or future even when they manage to hide themselves from _Heimdall_."

"Oh really?" Loki said, suddenly a bit concerned. "Was there anything else you wanted to show me?"

"Just one more and perhaps the most important," the spirit said gravely.

"More important than the people I actually know?" Loki asked skeptically.

"Well…the most important of the people you don't know yet," the spirit amended. "Darcy and Jane Foster. Darcy is the one with glasses."

"Why does one of them get a last name and the other doesn't?" Loki asked. "Or are they both Fosters?"

"No, just Jane," the spirit said. "She's the more important one for our purposes."

Loki looked down to see two girls with dark hair, one with glasses and one without them. They were sitting on a sofa in front of a TV showing some sort of cartoon.

"Remember when I said I'd kill you last?" Darcy said suddenly. "I lied."

Jane laughed. "Darcy, what are you even talking about?"

"It's from that old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie," Darcy explained. "I don't know which one."

"You can't just randomly quote old movies at people!" Jane exclaimed. "Especially when you're threatening to kill people."

"Did you feel like your life was actually in danger?" Darcy asked. "Because if not then I think that I kind of can."

"I was in total fear of my life," Jane said solemnly.

"And yet you're still sitting right next to me," Darcy noted.

"I'm too scared to move," Jane said. "And trying to cover it. Oh, and I don't want to make any sudden movements lest you kill me faster."

"You sure have thought all this through in your panic."

Jane shrugged. "I'm a scientist; it comes with the territory."

"Aren't you going to ask me why I randomly quoted a movie line to you?" Darcy asked.

"Yes, by all means explain your evil plan to me," Jane said. "It's a genre convention, after all. If I might request that you turn around and not look at me while you do so so that I might escape then, well, I would like to request that."

"So you don't ever just drop random movie quotes into the middle of a conversation?" Darcy asked.

"Rarely if ever," Jane answered. "And we weren't actually talking."

"And yet now we are! Random movie quotes for the win!" Darcy cheered.

"How many of those do you even have?" Jane asked.

Darcy tilted her head. "Let's see… 'Here's looking at you, kid.' 'Of all the gin joints in all the world, she had to walk in to mine.' 'No man's a failure who has friends.' 'Communism is just a red herring.' 'As you wish.' 'I tried to kill your Aunt Maggie but I failed and I fell.' 'Remember remember the Fifth of November.' And…I think that's it, off the top of my head. No, wait! 'Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty apes!'"

"That's certainly…eclectic," Jane said, amused. "I wonder what kind of conversation you could start with the Aunt Maggie one. You'd probably have to explain who Aunt Maggie was."

"It might get me into trouble depending on where I am but probably less trouble than the one where I threatened to kill you last," Darcy mused. "But here in our little RV I think I'm safe."

"Yes, feel perfectly secure to threaten to kill me to your heart's content," Jane said, nodding. "Wait, that didn't come out right."

"No, I think it kind of did," Darcy said, grinning.

"This is the weirdest Christmas I've ever had," Jane said.

"Well what do you expect?" Darcy asked rhetorically. "We're in New Mexico. Not much of a chance of snow here unless Mrs. Claus gets Mother Nature to force Heat Meister and Snow Meister to agree to switch for the day again and that was for a really good cause last time. Besides, I don't think whatever state Southtown was in was New Mexico. This isn't really Dixie. Although I don't know if it was just for one town or one state but either way it probably wouldn't do us much good."

Jane shook her head and laughed. "I swear, it's like you're speaking a whole different language."

"And _that _is precisely why we're going to watch The Year Without A Santa Claus in a minute," Darcy said, satisfied.

"Honestly, I'm not quite sure that I _want_ to understand where you're coming from sometimes," Jane admitted. "Your mind must be a terrifying place."

"I think I'll take that as a compliment," Darcy said brightly.

The scene faded from view. Loki looked expectantly at the floor but no new one materialized.

"Does this mean we're done?" he asked hopefully.

"It does indeed," the spirit confirmed. "You don't have to sound so excited about it."

"I really do," Loki argued. "But tell me, why is this Jane Foster supposed to be so important?"

"I can't tell you that," the spirit said mysteriously. "But remember her!"

"Alright…"

The two stood around awkwardly for a moment.

"Would you like to see mankind's shameful disease-ridden children Ignorance and Want?" the spirit offered.

"I…think I'd rather just get on to the fourth spirit," Loki said neutrally. "Or third spirit if you don't want to count my grandfather."

The spirit sighed. "No one ever wants to see them."

"Maybe you should work on how you sell it to them," Loki suggested helpfully.

The spirit brightened. "Would you-"

"No."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Loki didn't have time to catch his breath when the Ghost of Christmas Present left him (forgetting to age prematurely despite the fact Christmas wasn't over like he had warned that he would but Loki wasn't about to remind him) because instead of being returned to his room to await the present he was greeted with a figured entirely robed in black. One skeletal hand was visible from within the depths of the robe.

Well, Loki wasn't one to judge.

"Let's get on with it then," he said briskly.

The spirit waved his hand and they were with Tony Stark and a very virtuous-looking blonde man.

"Ah, the promise. Captain America," Loki realized.

"Look, Tony, it's not like I don't appreciate your efforts to help catch me up on what I missed the last seventy years," Rogers said, "but this really isn't necessary."

"Consider it my gift to you," Stark said magnanimously. "And no, before you ask, there are no refunds and don't be rude."

"I'm not being rude," Rogers said. "I just don't think that this is going to be a very good idea."

"Don't be ridiculous," Stark said dismissively. "This is a _brilliant _idea. Absolutely brilliant."

"Now, Tony, you know that I would never disparage your brilliance," Rogers began.

"Is there a 'but' coming on? I feel like there's a 'but' coming on that might, in fact, accidentally disparage my brilliance," Stark warned.

"_Everything _seems much different than it was back before my…accident," Rogers said a little lamely. "I'm sure that Christmas will be no different. And I'm just as sure that your version of Christmas will be a little _much _for me."

"You've lost your muchness," Stark accused.

"See, this is exactly what I-"

"Oh, come on! Alice in Wonderland! That's the 1860s or something right there," Stark interrupted. "Maybe your real problem isn't so much that you missed seventy years of history as it is that you just didn't get out much."

"I was a little busy with the war," Rogers said tolerantly.

"I would think, what with you travelling all over the United States and Europe inspiring people and fighting Nazis, you'd have gotten out quite a bit," Stark said.

"I 'got out' plenty but watching films and reading novels weren't really on the agenda," Rogers replied.

Stark snapped his fingers. "Oh, that is brilliant! I am brilliant. JARVIS, record that I am brilliant."

"I've recorded such a sentiment before but, for the 511th time, you are brilliant," a computerized voice – JARVIS? – said.

"Would you mind sharing with the class?" Rogers asked.

"You need to watch Indiana Jones," Stark explained. "He fought Nazis, too. Of course, that's not really Christmas-themed but I know you'll be just as in-need of help catching up on culture the other 364 days of the year as you are today."

"Which is 'not at all', just so we're clear," Rogers said. "I'm really fine."

"Oh, bullshit," Stark said, waving a hand. "Did you even watch It's a Wonderful Life?"

"What?"

"I'm reasonably sure that that came out before you went into the ice. But just in case it didn't, I'm not going to check and JARVIS is forbidden from checking either," Stark said loudly.

"But I'm allowed to check?"

Stark laughed. "Go right ahead and check if you can figure out _how_."

Rogers looked almost pained. "It doesn't matter."

"You're right, it really doesn't, because it could have come out in the 1980s for all I care and you still wouldn't have seen it so you'd still need to watch it," Stark said. "But then, of course, it wouldn't be in black and white or if it would then I'd have to watch a colorize version and listen to everyone ranting about how it 'ruins art' and whatnot. Obadiah was especially bad about that but, well, that's not a concern anymore. I kept telling him that it was a movie and not art and, well, that just sort of made it worse. I'll put up with black and white movies only as long as everything in that era was black and white even if Wizard of Oz totally proved that as of 1939 they didn't _have _to do it that way. Oh, but I'll make an exception for Psycho. That's the only one, though."

"I recognized 'Wizard of Oz' and '1939' out of all of that," Rogers deadpanned.

"The gist is we're adding It's a Wonderful Life to the list," Stark summarized. "Economy of language has never really been my thing."

"The list? Tony, you know that I never agreed to do this," Rogers protested.

"And yet you're still here so I'm taking that as a sign of consent," Stark said brightly. "Come on, we'll start with Die Hard."

"Die Hard?" Rogers repeated uncertainly.

"Oh, it's only the best Christmas Movie ever made!" Stark said enthusiastically. " Don't let Pepper tell you that it's not really a Christmas movie because she's just jealous and it takes place at Christmas and everything."

"What's it even about?"

"People dying. Hard. Don't you listen?" Stark asked, reaching for the remote.

Rogers sighed but didn't move.

"Well…that was…something," Loki said as the scene surrounding them faded away. "I don't believe that I got anything out of it but at least that's over."

Next they were standing inside some sort of clear prison with a future version of Loki himself and Stark standing steel-eyed outside of the cage.

"I suppose this is proof that we do know each other in the future," Loki remarked. "Though I still don't see how watching him celebrate an irrelevant Misgardian holiday a few times matters at all to me and I can't say that I'm liking the look of our association."

"You know," Stark began conversationally, "if it were up to me I'd kill you."

"I take it that it is not, in fact, up to you then," Loki said, equally casually.

Stark shook his head. "No, it's not. This is a SHIELD facility and I'm not exactly on the payroll. I'm not on anybody's payroll, come to think of it. Of course, if it were up to them then they'd kill you, too. Just maybe not before they get some information out of you. I don't _think _they're into vivisection but your really never know and you've pissed off a _lot _of important people. Dissection would occur either way, I'm assuming, and I've got to admit that I'd certainly be interested in the findings."

"My that does all sound unpleasant," Loki said mildly. "I wonder who my mysterious savior could be."

Stark laughed harshly. It was so different from all of the other times that Loki had heard him laugh of late. "Oh, you know damn well who it is. Your loving brother won't let us touch you and, between us, I think we're lucky he even let us lock you up in the first place. You'll be going home with him soon enough."

"He's not my brother and Asgard isn't my home," Loki said stiffly.

The current Loki frowned in confusion. Clearly _something _had to have gone wrong somewhere for him to end up caged by lesser beings but to deny Thor and Asgard? Something wasn't right here.

Stark nodded seriously. "Yeah, Thor mentioned that you were adopted. I've heard that can be pretty traumatizing. Of course, being taken in when you didn't have to be by the king and queen of, well, anywhere really, but particularly Asgard and raised as their own son sounds like a pretty sweet gig to me so you have even less of a reason to go around killing people than most kids who find out they're adopted. And they don't have much justification for that either, just in case you were wondering."

"I wasn't," Loki said. "It's all a bit more complicated than that, not that I'd expect one such as yourself to be able to understand that."

Loki was sure that, whatever happened, his future self had had his reasons. It did not follow that finding out that his parents weren't really his parents (why wouldn't they have told him? Why would they have taken him in as Thor's brother? Who was he really? Was this why he hadn't been given the throne? It wasn't what his parents had said, even when they were alone. Suddenly him meeting Thor for the first time made a lot more sense) would make him want to kill everybody but then it couldn't be so simple. He needed more information and he needed it now. He rather doubted that Stark had it and he certainly wouldn't just give it to him so easily.

But one thing he did know was that, understandable or not, however he had reacted didn't seem to be working out too well for him.

"What, more 'puny mortal' stuff?" Stark asked, unimpressed. "Real scary when _we_ beat _you_. Maybe you should stop putting us down because it really isn't helping you any."

"I was beaten by a Hulk," Loki disagreed. "I hardly think it's fair to hold that one against me."

Stark looked thoughtful. "No, you do have a point about that one. Fine. But from what Thor told us – which wasn't a whole lot, believe it or not, the guy still wants to protect you after all of this – you found out you were adopted, your dad went into some kind of conveniently-timed coma, and then you decided to go crazy and evil on us."

"As usual, he leaves out all the salient facts."

Stark raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I'll bite. Care to enlighten me?"

Loki said nothing.

"I'm not saying people can't change," Stark said. "I know I did though I didn't start from a 'genocidal maniac' place which certainly helped. You already changed, though, and for the worse. Or at least that's what Thor says. I never met you then so I can either take his word for it or accept that he truly has terrible instincts about people. And you don't seem like you're at all sorry which isn't a good sign."

"Oh, I'm sorry for plenty. Trying to subjugate you all just isn't on the list."

"I'm sure failing is, though," Stark said, nodding. "As long as Asgard can keep you properly contained I guess it really isn't my problem. You don't deserve this chance but, for Thor's sake and maybe one day for everyone else's, I hope you take it."

The current Loki fought down his outrage at this mortal's presumption. No matter what he had done (and he was willing to concede that it seemed to be a lot), Stark needed to know his place.

The spirit still hadn't said anything but it waved its skeletal hand and then they were standing in the throne room of Asgard. Odin was standing there before a chained and guarded Loki looking down at him with something akin to disgust.

"All-Father," Loki greeted neutrally. "I'd bow but, as you can see, I'm rather encumbered."

"Loki," Odin said gravely. "After all this time would you really be flippant?"

"It did occur to me that that would be a good way to handle things," Loki said. "How would you prefer I behave? Shall I crawl on my knees before you, penitent for the Jotun and the Midgardians?"

"I would not believe you if you did," Odin said heavily. "You may one day be penitent though that day is not today. When that day comes, you will not admit it. You would not have admitted it back before you were the sort of man who would try to conquer and destroy worlds."

"No, I suppose I have a little more dignity than that," Loki said, looking completely unaffected. "You raised me well although I am not, of course, the perfect son Thor is. Have heart, given my illustrious beginnings you could hardly have done more."

Odin briefly closed his eyes. "After all this, you would still choose to focus on the fact that you are not my blood and not the far more worrisome actions you have committed?"

"It all comes back to that, doesn't it?" Loki asked rhetorically. "You brought me home to use as a weapon but now I've slipped your leash and you don't like it."

"You were my _son_, Loki!"

"You said yourself, you thought that with the son of Laufey raised in Asgard there would one day be a lasting peace. Tell me you weren't planning to reveal me one day and stick me on the throne as a puppet king blindly loyal to you or to Thor!" Loki cried out, losing his composure.

"And just how do you think that would have worked out?" Odin snapped. "Was I to reveal to Laufey or his heirs upon his death that I had taken a prince of Jotunheim and secreted him away to raise as my own for well over a millennia? Even though you had been left to die and they never would have known the difference if I hadn't, do you really believe that that would have done anything except turn them against us further and perhaps provoke another war? Do you really think I am so crafty and ruthless as to plot your entire life carefully to rule Jotunheim myself and yet so naïve as to not see what the result of revealing such a thing – as I would have to do – would be?"

"Well what was it, then?" Loki challenged.

"You were meant to find out the truth eventually and so was Thor," Odin said tiredly. "Either you on the throne would have understanding that your other people were not monsters or Thor would come to know that the realm that gave him his brother could not all be evil and the two of you would have an easier time dealing with Jotunheim than the man they recall as having stolen their casket from them."

Loki forced a laugh. "Really? Even now you claim I could have ever taken the throne. I'm not even Asgardian."

"You were Asgardian enough," Odin said simply. "Now I think you know that that is impossible."

"It was _impossible _back before we had even gone to Jotunheim when Thor was set to have his coronation."

"Not more about how we mistreated you by favoring Thor!" Odin roared. "You attacked, unprovoked, a world under our protection! You tried to wipe out Jotunheim!"

"Neither would have been any great loss," Loki said dismissively. "The Midgardians are pathetic and need firm guidance to even just keep them from killing each other or courting disaster. They were the ones who reached out with the Tesseract to the Chitauri and these are the ones who are supposed to know better. As for the Jotun, well, let's not pretend that they are anything more than a race of monsters. They would have killed you as you slept."

"They are not all monsters, Loki, you can't possibly believe that," Odin told him.

Loki smiled a truly creepy and manic smile at him. "Are you truly going to deny that I am a monster after what I've done?"

Odin shook his head. "There is no point in speaking to you when you are like this. We will resume this conversation another time. Guards."

Loki laughed again, his voice completely devoid of mirth. "Oh, yes, by all means lock me away and hide me off somewhere where you don't have to see me infecting your perfect family."

The current Loki was blinking rapidly, trying to make sense of what was happening.

The scene changed and Sif stood before the cell Loki was in. He recognized the dungeons easily. At least he was in there alone.

Fortunately, she was just staring at him while he was casually examining the ceiling.

It didn't make sense. None of this made sense. His future self and his father outright said that Loki had been taken from Jotunheim and wasn't Asgardian at all but a Jotun. _Laufey's son_. He couldn't be Laufey's son. It wasn't right. It didn't make sense.

Even if he never felt the cold as keenly as others did. Even if he was the outlier in appearance while Frigga, Odin, and Thor all resembled each other. Even if he had never had much skill with a blade and far more magic than anyone on Asgard knew what to do with.

It didn't make sense. It couldn't be.

What did it even mean? He was a monster. They said he was not and were clearly trying to reach him but…the chain of logic was simple. Jotun were monsters. Loki was a Jotun. Loki was a monster. The words just didn't make sense!

"Are you going to be standing there all day?" Loki asked finally, sounding quite bored. "I wouldn't mind, though I'm sure you have your duties and I'll be blamed for you failing to fulfill them, but you're hardly transparent and you're blocking my view."

"Your view of the empty cage behind me?" Sif asked.

"I find it far more fascinating than this other-wise empty cage I'm sitting in," Loki replied. "I believe the Midgardians have an expression for that, actually, but you'd have to ask Thor. Something about grass, I think."

"You should know better than to think I would neglect my duties, especially for _you_," Sif said poisonously.

"Oh, of course, our future queen would never do something like that. What, were you assigned to guard me? Did you volunteer?" Loki asked, leering.

"I'm not here to discuss your mad idea that Thor and I will one day wed," Sif told him bluntly.

"Then why are you here?"

"I'm trying to understand how any of this happened," she admitted.

"You'll have to be a bit more specific about the what but I'm sure I can help you with the hows and whys after that," Loki said. "Why am I in this cell? Well, the All-Father has locked me away as I'm _inconvenient _for him after Thor brutally attacked me and carried me off back on Midgard where I eventually ended up after the both of them threw me into an abyss after Thor destroyed the Bifrost."

The look that Sif gave him was almost pitying. "Sometimes I wonder if you truly believe all of the nonsense that you spew."

"Wondering is good for the soul, I hear," Loki said.

"We used to be so happy, all of us," Sif said quietly. "What happened?"

"I don't remember things quite so idealistically as you do," Loki said. "And don't pretend you don't know what changed. Once I knew the truth, how could I ever pretend I didn't? When your life is a lie you can either pretend that it changes nothing or be brave and face what that means."

"So, what?" Sif asked. "You were born in another realm and so now you have no choice but to turn against everyone who has ever loved you and seek to destroy everything you touch? I would have expected better than that from you, Loki."

"So would I have," Loki agreed.

Sif's brow furrowed in confusion.

"What a pity that Loki the Asgardian prince who would never have done any of this simply never existed."

Even Sif, who had no unbreakable ties to him (not that the family ties of those not his blood were unbreakable), was still there in some capacity after finding out the truth.

How could they all act as though it changed nothing? As though it did not matter when it was all that ever _could _matter? Perhaps it was easier to pretend when it was Loki who was the fake and not them.

Loki wondered what he would do if he found out that Thor was the Jotun after all.

Well, after having to deal with the knowledge that his father would rather leave the throne to a Jotun than to him.

He wasn't sure but he thought maybe he had a slight idea but didn't want to face it. There was no point anyway. Thor was as Asgardian as they came.

Sif vanished and Frigga appeared though she was actually in the cell and not standing outside of it. Since there were no more guards than usual to protect Asgard's queen, it was probably that she was just an image and not the real thing.

"Your Father-" she was saying.

Loki's eyes were wild as he spun around and screamed, "He's not my father!"

Frigga stared steadily at him but did not argue. "Then am I not your mother?"

Loki said nothing for a long moment, clearly caught in the logical trap. For so long Odin had been his father and Frigga his mother. He could hardly deny one and keep the other as much as it was clear that he wanted to. It was a relief to know that at least Frigga had not done anything to wrong him save keeping quiet about his true parentage.

"You are not," he finally said but it was clear that his heart wasn't in it.

Frigga smiled sadly, knowing better than to take pain from his words. "You're always so perceptive of everyone but yourself."

The scene changed again and there was a prison break going on. Loki was the only prisoner left alone in his cage but he still helpfully gave advice on how to reach the personal rooms of the king and queen efficiently.

That would be treason, Loki supposed, but then no more serious than any of the other things that he knew he would do in the future and had been imprisoned for. Even with the weight of the idea of him not being Asgardian crushing him, he still did not quite see how those things seemed like a good idea.

"I considered not coming here, you know," Fandral said, suddenly appearing in front of the cage. "You don't deserve to know."

Loki, reading, did not glance up.

"But then I realized that I would be forcing Thor to come here and deliver the news himself or at least Sif would have if she wanted to protect him and I could not do that to them. They loved her more dearly than I," he continued.

Loki turned another page in his book but the current Loki could tell that his curiosity was piqued.

"Your m-the que-Your mother," Fandral finally settled on uncertainly, "is dead."

Loki didn't even blink.

The current Loki didn't know how he could do that. His own mother was far from dead as he was far from imprisoned within Asgard's own dungeon but even he found it a little difficult to breathe after those words. He really must commend his future self his composure and hope that he wasn't so far gone that the words no longer touched him the way they should.

"Malekith and his Kursed got to the throne room before they were stopped. Thor arrived only seconds too late to save her. I believe that he watched her die."

Still Loki said nothing. Malekith and the Kursed. Were one of those the ones to whom Loki had given directions? If they hadn't had directions, if Thor had arrived literally seconds too late, did that mean that…No. It was too horrible to contemplate and he didn't know, couldn't know. Not like his future self.

"I don't know why I'm even here telling you this," Fandral said, turning disgustedly from Loki's cell. "You don't care. Maybe you never did."

Fandral turned to go and after a moment Loki put down the book and stood up. He clenched his fists and magic seeped from them proving, at last, that he wasn't so unaffected as he tried to be.

The scene changed.

"Loki!" Thor cried out. He and Loki were facing each other on top of a tall building, carnage all around them. "You're alive!"

"You don't sound pleased to hear that, brother, which is very hurtful," Loki said flippantly. "Also a bit surprising given how I know you mourn whenever I go off and die on you."

"You _never _died."

"No, I suppose not," Loki agreed. "Still, it's not for lack of trying on your part."

"I never tried to kill you!" Thor burst out.

Loki raised an elegant eyebrow. "Really? I'm sure that I can find people to agree with me on that one even if you dispute some of your more direct attempts."

"I never threw you into the void and I didn't let the Kursed know you were behind him!"

Loki shrugged. "Yes, you did, but it's alright that you refuse to acknowledge it. It doesn't matter anymore."

"I mourn you when I believe you are gone because I am free to remember the person you were and the good that you could do and miss you without the complication of you being evil and killing so many people now," Thor told him gravely. "I mourn you because this time I hope that it's not just another lie and we can finally put this to rest."

"Ah, how lovely. You can mourn me because I'm _safe_ dead. You can love the shadow of me that perhaps I never even was and tell yourself whatever you want to hear. Maybe I was mad. Maybe I didn't know what I was doing. Maybe, oh here's my favorite one, maybe I've _changed_. You can lie to yourself as well as I ever could, brother. But at the end of the day we both know that you want me dead."

"I want for it not to be necessary for you to be dead," Thor told him. "But what else can I do? You know we cannot hold you forever. And you did change."

"I discovered the truth about myself," Loki countered.

"You _chose _that truth, it didn't have to be this way," Thor said. "And you did change. You were never the same after mother died."

"After Frigga's death and my freedom, a great many things changed. How sentimental for you to assume it was the death of that woman and not my ascension to the throne – finally! – after that old fool was dealt with that did it."

The current Loki stared at him but he couldn't see the lie. Did he truly not care anymore? Had he convinced himself he never did? Or was he just so great a liar that even he couldn't see it anymore? Thor certainly wouldn't be able to.

How could he no longer care for Frigga?

How had things come that far? How had it gone from 'it doesn't matter that you're adopted' to Thor truly wishing him dead because there was no other way that he could see to end this?

Clearly this was a long way in the future. He could only hope it was centuries instead of a few short years.

"You don't get to do that," Thor said, glaring at him.

"I don't get to do what?" Loki asked, looking bored. "I don't get to remind you that I don't care to play at being happy families with you, even in your romanticized recollections of our pasts?"

"You don't get to call me 'brother' and then deny that we are family."

"We _aren't _family," Loki said, abruptly turning blue. "We aren't even the same species. If you can't even accept that, after all this time, after I had Jane banished from Asgard and her mind wiped of all traces of you then I don't see how you're going to kill me. I never cared for you and you still love me dearly, don't you? _Sentiment_. It's pathetic."

Thor's eyes flashed at that. "I will do what I must and you are making one of us killing the other more and more inevitable with every word that you say."

"But I'm not quite there yet, am I?" Loki asked mockingly. "Well how about this then. Do you remember when, centuries ago, your mother died?"

"Our mother," Thor said slowly, suspiciously. "Yes, I do. You were quite distraught then. You allowed your appearance to fall into disarray and even showed the truth of it to me. You threw a magical tantrum and were barely holding up."

"I certainly gave the appearance of it," Loki agreed. "Between us it was one of my finer performances. And it was easier because it was what you wanted to believe anyway."

"There was no need of you to _pretend _to care," Thor said. "You were needed to save Jane and all the realms from the Aether."

Loki nodded. "You might have been so desperate as to release me regardless but you needed a reason to believe me. You could have used me to leave the realm even while leaving me chained up as that was what you did. It was convenient to fool Malekith into thinking I was betraying you but that would only work if you could trust me that much. You needed a reason and the two of them killing Frigga was a very good one."

"But if it were not enough for me to trust that you simply didn't want to die because your will to live was not that strong then why did you need me to trust you at all?" Thor demanded. "And I could have found another way, you're right."

Loki looked at him condescendingly. "I needed to escape. If you knew I was alive you would have hunted me and, even if you did not find me, I would not have been able to do half of what I had planned. I needed to be dead and the more emotional and, dare I say it, _redemptive _my death the better and the less you would suspect me. What better way than dying to save you? But you'd have never believed me capable of that if you didn't see me mourn 'our' mother."

"I don't believe you," Thor said firmly. "Whatever may have happened since then, you loved our mother and you mourned her as keenly as I did. 'Trust my rage,' you said. I did."

"As you were meant to and it was your mistake," Loki said indifferently. "One thing you never knew was that when the Kursed walked past me and freed everyone else, I left him with one parting bit of advice."

Thor looked confused but apprehensive. "Loki-"

"This secret that I've been carrying all this time, I think now really is the perfect time for you to know," Loki said silkily.

Thor swallowed hard. "What?"

"I told them how to get to the throne room. I'm the reason you couldn't save her."

Thor gave a mighty roar and swung Mjolnir at his head.

Loki couldn't understand it. Even though he'd already realized that it was likely his own future self's doing that allowed the Kursed to arrived in Frigga's room in time to kill her before Thor arrived, he knew it had to have been unintentional and he had seen evidence of that Loki's pain. It couldn't have possibly been an act so great it would fool even him!

Why would he lie about it now? _Brag _about it now?

What had happened to him since he first discovered the truth about himself? Surely even the Jotun who had not attacked once since Odin had crushed them so thoroughly all those years ago were not so monstrous. But what did that say about him if it wasn't the Jotun thing after all?

The scene changed and Loki and Thor looked older. They were in Asgard and a mighty battle was going on around them between the Frost Giants and the Asgardians.

"How could you do this, brother?" Thor shouted at him.

Loki looked amused. "We've been estranged far longer than we ever believed ourselves to be _brothers _and you still cannot just let it go? I come leading an army that will destroy everything you've ever held dear and you still address me as 'brother.'"

"I still cannot believe that even you would fall so far," Thor replied.

Loki shrugged. "You always were a bit of an idiot."

"I know that you're still angry about…about what I do not even know. About the fact that you did not know the truth of your origins? All these wrongs you concoct in your head and I do not even understand them!" Thor exclaimed. "But to destroy everything with your rage? Surely even you must know that you go too far!"

"I concede nothing of the kind and it's a little late to try and stop now."

"It's never too late!" Thor said earnestly. "I just know that together, you and I can end this and save all these lives! Yes, even those on your side!"

"You cannot honestly believe that I care one whit about the Jotun," Loki said disgustedly. "What do you take me for?"

Thor appeared to know better than to answer that. "Even if you could not stop it, it would be worth it to fight on the right side again regardless."

"That's far too sentimental and not practical enough for me," Loki replied, "and haven't you gotten tired of asking me this every time we meet? It's just never going to happen."

"It did once," Thor said quietly.

Loki rolled his eyes. "After I killed your mother."

"No. Even if what you said was true and you led the Kursed to her and even if you did it on purpose, I know you were not the one who dove that blade into her flesh. I won't believe that of you."

"It matters little and will matter less when all this has passed," Loki said simply.

"Do you remember when we were children?" Thor asked.

Loki sighed theatrically. "Oh, not this again! Yes, yes, we were adorable children happily frolicking all of the time with no problems. I get it. Your recollections really do leave something to be desired."

"Do you remember, we once spoke of Ragnarok."

"I do not but I would not be surprised if we spoke of it many times," Loki said. "The prophesized end of all worlds is a rather fascinating subject. I just never thought that I could be a part in it."

"You said that you thought it was a terrible idea and that if you had been in charge of planning it it would have been different," Thor said. "You said that you never intended to die and that if we were lucky Ragnarok wouldn't happen. And now you'd bring it about yourself? Because Mother and Father lied to you about being adopted?"

"I really wish you people would stop trivializing it in such a way," Loki growled. "It hasn't been about that in a long time."

"It's all it's _ever _been about," Thor argued.

"And all of that was a long time ago. It's over."

"It doesn't have to be," Thor insisted.

The Loki in front of Thor was revealed to be a copy as a Loki appeared behind him and stabbed him straight in the heart.

"Perhaps it didn't but it's how I choose to end this," Loki said simply. "You never did see that one coming."

Thor reached out a trembling hand for him. "Brother…don't…"

Loki kicked his hand away. "Pathetic."

The current Loki turned away, unable to bear it anymore.

How could this have happened? Even if he were secretly a Jotun spirited away and lied to all his life, it did not justify bringing about the end of all of the realms! Perhaps Frigga's death was an accident and who knew what had happened to Odin but Thor's death was cruel and callous and entirely his own fault. Thor didn't deserve to die because of Loki.

All Loki had ever wanted to do was to prove himself Thor's equal or, sometimes and only secretly, his superior. He had never wanted to break Thor. Never wanted to see him dead. And now Thor was dead (or would be dead, that was some consolation) at his own hand. His and no one else's. There was no one else to blame.

Should he blame his parents for bringing him into Thor's life in the first place? Everyone who could have killed him and didn't? Thor himself for not knowing better than to trust him not to kill him in the end?

"But it doesn't make sense," Loki murmured.

The spirit said nothing but Loki got the impression that it was listening.

"The past must be able to change. It must be. The future, I mean. My future. If not, then what was the point? And the other ones all spoke of changing it," he continued. "But that's what doesn't make sense. They said when they wanted things to change that I not stop Thor from becoming king by letting Jotun into Asgard. But clearly everyone that matters survives that. If I were supposed to not do that so I wouldn't find out I was born a Jotun and all of this wouldn't happen then I could understand that but you showed me quite clearly the truth of that. Maybe you weren't meant to but I can't imagine you'd do a meaningless favor like showing me Captain America's Christmas for the Ghost of Christmas Present but you would sabotage my…salvation."

The spirit said nothing.

"I still need to think on this. I need time and far more time than I actually have before the coronation. Because I still don't believe that Thor on the throne now will be anything less than an unmitigated disaster even if I hope it would not lead to Ragnarok," Loki said, trying to think. "But you win, spirit, you win. I know now that something got to change. Ragnarok is a terrible idea and I _will _not be responsible for my brother's death."

The spirit glided closer to Loki and raised its arm, covering him with its cloak.

Loki felt a momentary trill of fear before finding himself back in his bedroom. He didn't reach for his book though he knew he'd be getting on sleep that night. First he would need to try and figure out what had happened and why and then maybe he'd have to start trying to avert it.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

In the end, Loki did not attend the Christmas Feast after all and was sure that it played out the way he had seen it through the third spirit he'd encountered. He stayed in his room nearly the entire time until the coronation and did not speak to anyone. He was trying to change the course of his destiny and Thor's and all of Asgard's and he did not have very much time in which to shape it and not nearly all of the facts.

He was sure he was worrying everyone to no end and they completely misunderstood the reason but it had to be done. He might even be hurting Thor but ultimately a few bruised feelings he'd never admit to were a small price to pay for a better future.

It was good that the spirits came to him and not Thor. His solution would probably just be swinging Mjolnir at Loki until he promised he'd never end the world or something.

He never did figure out what they were or how any of that had come to be but he supposed he still had time.

Finally, the day of the coronation had arrived and Loki had no more time.

It was okay, however, because he had more or less decided by then anyway.

He had surprised his brother by being in a jovial mood when he met him before the coronation. They reminisced, Loki turned some wine into snakes, and Thor had actually needed reassurance. Loki had even assured Thor that he loved him even if he couldn't keep the moment serious after that.

Loki had done a lot of thinking and had decided that, despite everything he now knew, there was really no better way to stop the coronation than there had been before his ghostly experience and it was no less urgent to keep Odin on the throne.

As to the story about him being from Jotunheim…well, that was just still so difficult to accept but he did know that everyone had tried to reach him far longer than they needed to if they were pretending so perhaps he could at least see what they had to say about it and then go from there.

It was an inconvenient truth that he knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, but as the days passed it became easier to just not think about it and he started to wonder if he could just continue to ignore it throughout the centuries and not go through an evil period that led to Ragnarok itself. He would see.

Of course the truly drastic action of letting the Jotun into Asgard wasn't enough to stop or even significantly delay Thor's coronation even if Thor did get into an argument with Odin about the wisdom of going to Jotunheim and smashing everything up.

Loki wondered if, now that he was aware that he was a Jotun himself, it should bother him to hear Thor speak of his clear desire to wipe every Jotun out of existence. Strangely it did not. Perhaps he hadn't internalized it then.

Even without the benefit of his ghostly visitors, it would be painfully obvious that Thor would be smarting after being denied vengeance by Odin and it took very little to convince Thor it was his own idea to attack Jotunheim. Honestly, if it would have occurred to Thor in the first place then Loki needn't have done anything.

Loki had intended for Heimdall to stop them but, for some reason, he didn't. Loki wondered, as he often did, just how far-seeing Heimdall was anyway. He always claimed he could not see the future but Loki could think of no other purpose for letting them pass besides some good coming from Thor being banished and meeting with those people he had been forced to watch celebrate.

Jotunheim was…problematic. Loki supposed he could at least credit Thor for having the sense to realize that being completely surrounded by a veritable army when there was a mere half-dozen of them and he was fully prepared to leave and pretend the whole thing never happened. Of course, the fact that all it took was a Jotun calling him a little princess to call the whole tactical retreat thing off still meant that Loki was absolutely right about that whole coronation thing. Not that he ever really doubted it.

If Odin hadn't come, they probably would have been killed or at least held prisoner. If Loki did not quickly get out of Jotunheim…he hadn't intended to let that _thing _touch him but touch him it had. Loki had quickly slain it but they both saw his milky-white skin darken into a deep and monstrous blue. If the Jotun took possession of him, how long would he be able to keep that secret?

Even though Loki had fully expected Odin to be angry and was perhaps not as alarmed by Thor's banishment as he would have been without knowing that it all would work out fine for Thor, it was truly frightening to watch Odin's terrible anger. He hadn't known that Thor would be banished but he had seen him in Asgard in the future. Did that mean that the time when he was to be locked up was a good long time coming or was Asgard's golden boy only cast aside for a short while?

At least the throne was safe for a few years longer.

Still, people were taking the banishment hard. When Frigga found out she trembled though if it were more rage or sorrow Loki wasn't entirely sure. Odin was clearly unhappy but unwilling to go back on his word now that his eyes had been open to the danger Thor's impetuous nature posed with the powers he normally had, let alone the new ones he should have been granted.

And Sif and the Warriors Three, of course, were blaming themselves.

"We should never have let him go," Volstagg said, not eating for once. His appetite would return in time and probably sooner than Fandral thought seemly.

"There was no stopping him," Sif pointed out.

"At least he's only banished not dead which is what we'd all be if that guard hadn't told Odin where we'd gone," Fandral said, an edge in his voice. He missed Thor, certainly, but no one appreciated a needless near-death experience.

"How did the guard even know?" Volstagg wondered.

Loki knew that suspicious would eventually fall on him no matter what he said or didn't say (something he found rather irksome despite the fact that in this instance it was perfectly justified for them to suspect him) and so he decided that he might as well just come out with it and not wait around for their insinuations. "I told him."

The room froze. Clearly they hadn't begun to suspect him yet. Well, what did they think happened? Heimdall chose to let them go and then tattled on them?

"What?" Fandral looked shocked.

"I told him to go to Odin after we'd left," Loki explained. "He should be flogged for taking so long. We should never have reached Jotunheim."

"You told the guard!" Volstagg said accusingly.

"I did just say that," Loki agreed.

"Why would you do such a terrible thing?" Fandral demanded.

Loki rolled his eyes. "Didn't you _just _say that Thor would have gotten us killed? I saved our lives and now _I'm_ the bad guy?"

"You're twisting our words," Sif complained, the unspoken 'again' obvious to all. "If you knew that this was such a bad idea that you told your father about it and didn't want us to reach Jotunheim then why agree to go at all? Why do this the sneaky way? Why not just talk Thor out of it?"

"I'm sorry," Loki said, blinking, "didn't you _just _say that there was no stopping him?"

"None of _us_ could have stopped him," Sif agreed, "but you might have-"

"So I'm to be held to a higher standard than the rest of you?" Loki interrupted scornfully. "Blamed for your failings?"

Sif narrowed her eyes at him. "_Loki_. You know that you have power over him that the rest of us do not. Your words are persuasive."

"I haven't seemed to persuade you all that this wasn't my fault."

"Give it time," Hogun said dryly.

"I didn't say it was your _fault _but really, Loki? You couldn't have found a way to get a message to Odin about what we were planning? And don't tell me you didn't have an opportunity. We didn't see you instruct the guard so you could have had him leave quicker or sent a message directly to your father," Sif said.

"Maybe I needed Thor not to be saved from the consequences of his own actions for once," Loki said, surprising himself with this sudden bout of almost honesty.

"What's this?" Volstagg asked, stunned. "Loki, we might have died there!"

"No one forced you to go," Loki said, not looking at him. "And I don't mean that completely. We shouldn't have reached Jotunheim but Thor just would not listen. He argued for war and my father explained that he would not plunge us back into war with the Jotun. You know that fighting them is how we are supposed to destroy ourselves one day!"

There was an uneasy silence as they all thought of the prophecy of doom and destruction that constantly hung over all of them. Loki knew that, when it came, it was not Thor's fault but that vision would never come to be.

"He wouldn't listen," Loki repeated. "Father just thought it was his anger speaking and, in a way, it was but he didn't seem to realize that Thor was ready and willing to go spark a war so easily. I wanted Father to just realize how dangerous this was and to address it properly."

"Are you telling me that this has nothing to do with you not wanting Thor to be crowned?" Sif asked seriously.

"I'm telling you that the fact that Thor would have done this so easily means that you can't make this about my _jealousy_," Loki replied. "I saved our lives. And Thor's. You know that I did. And I really had no idea that Father would banish him for this. This is just so…unbelievable. Tell me that any of you would have expected that he would do this."

"No, we wouldn't," Volstagg admitted.

"Thor _banished_," Fandral said, shaking his head. "I might have expected some sort of punishment but this does seem a little extreme."

"Loki, you must go to the Allfather and convince him to change his mind," Sif said urgently.

"What makes you think that I could succeed where you have failed?" Loki asked rhetorically.

Sif just gave him a look.

"I didn't seem to make out very well with Heimdall earlier today."

"But earlier today you were actually trying to get us stopped," Fandral reminded him. "So I really don't think that counts."

"What makes you think that bringing him home is even a good idea?" Loki asked.

Sif stared at him. "Thor being banished is a bad thing. You said yourself you didn't want it to happen. How is unbanishing him therefore not obviously a good thing?"

"Thor has been stripped of his powers and will not get them back until he can life Mjolnir again and be worthy," Loki said. "I'm a little puzzled as to how Thor was found worthy up until my Father decided to banish him and he was not found unworthy when he was doing any of those things that he ended up getting banished for but then the concept of worthiness has never really been all that clear."

"He does have a point there," Volstagg said.

"At least he would be in Asgard," Sif said.

"Powerless in Asgard. Frankly that doesn't sound safe," Loki told her.

Sif rolled her eyes. "Protected here by us he wouldn't be safe but helpless and alone down there in Midgard he would be?"

"You're not showing a great deal of confidence in my brother, Sif," Loki noted. "But then again, after today's display I suppose that's not surprising."

Sif looked as though she would dearly have liked to hit him.

"How would he even prove worthy up here? No, I do not see the point in trying to bring him back when he has not regained his powers as it would only end part of the punishment and might very well make the second part impossible."

"And how do you propose he will prove worthy down there?" Hogun asked.

Loki shrugged. "I haven't the faintest idea. Perhaps he will heroically but foolishly charge into danger to save somebody and prove his worthiness there. You know we would never allow him to do that while powerless here and the dangers would be so much more likely to kill him in this state. And who knows? He may even learn something and will be a better king for returning."

Sif threw her arms up in the air. "You cannot possibly tell me that you think doing this to Thor will be for his own benefit!"

Loki shrugged again. "Who can say? But you seem to be forgetting that this was not my doing."

With that, he turned and strode from the room.

More than likely, they still wouldn't be appeased but he really didn't see how – even if he truly had nothing to do with any of this and wanted Thor back as uncomplicatedly as they did – bringing Thor back when he still had to prove his own worthiness would actually help matters any.

He didn't have time to worry about that, though. He had a secret to confront.

He truly did not want to which was why he delayed it as long as he did but something told him it would be better to do this when Thor was not around to make everything all about him.

He went to the weapon's vault and stood in front of the Casket of Ancient Winters for a long time, just staring at it. He knew what would happen if he touched it. When he touched it. He had seen it happen to another him that would never be now and back there on Jotunheim. As a prince not currently in exile, he was free to go to the vault whenever he saw fit but he knew that Odin would hear of it.

And when he sensed the king's approach, he picked up the Casket and let the magic wash over him. It felt wrong especially in how it kept trying to trick him into thinking it felt right. He knew better, though.

"Loki, stop!" Odin shouted from behind him.

He'd been told that many times over the years. Sometimes he ever should have heeded those words although, of course, he never did. He was trying now, trying to stop the future from ever coming to pass. But even so, things kept happening and he was getting caught up and now there were some things that could never be taken back.

Loki turned around slowly and grinned mirthlessly. "It's a little late for that, don't you think?"

There was a strange emotion in Odin's eyes at the sight of his blue son. "Loki…"

"I suppose you've got some perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this."

Odin slowly walked into the room. He looked tired. Banishing Thor had taken a lot out of him emotionally even though he wouldn't change his course now. He and Loki were a lot alike in that way, weren't they? The last thing he needed was more drama on the family front but how could Loki possibly wait until Thor had gotten his act together? The man had been at it for _centuries _and hadn't gotten it right.

"I do have an explanation, yes, but I do not know how reasonable you will find it," Odin replied. He sighed. "I wish your mother were here for this."

"You could always go get her," Loki suggested.

But Odin shook his head. "There isn't time. You can seek her out after this but you have picked a truly unfortunate time to have this conversation. We must get through it now, though, because otherwise I cannot even begin to imagine the damage that may be done."

Loki could and he swallowed hard. "Very well. What is your explanation?"

"You weren't born here on Asgard, Loki."

Loki fought the almost overpowering urge to say something sarcastic at this point. He had rather gotten that. But it looked like the Odinsleep was approaching and the last thing he wanted was for Odin to escape this conversation by becoming comatose indefinitely.

"No, you were born on Jotunheim," Odin admitted. "It's easy to forget that sometimes."

Loki couldn't help but laugh at that. "Is it really? I hardly fit in here."

"You hardly seek to blend in with everybody else," Odin corrected. "And I believe that you would refuse to do that no matter where you grew up or under what circumstances as that is just who you are. It is who Thor is, too, but he achieves that by being what everyone else is only more so. Being unique doesn't mean you don't belong."

The words were gratifying but Loki wasn't sure he could trust them. They were good words to try and salvage the situation and now that Loki knew something had to be done so he didn't make a complete mess of it. Other than killing him or imprisoning him for discovering the truth, which was a little extreme, what else could Odin do?

"You were the son of Laufey but you had been abandoned," Odin said. "It's a barbaric part of their culture. They leave their infants out in the frozen wasteland and come back later to see if they've survived. They say it is an important part of their culture and how they ensure that only the strongest survive and the weak do not bring them all down but they must kill so many children that way."

"So I was just going to be left there for awhile and then retrieved?" Loki asked, surprised. "That hardly sounds _abandoned_, Father."

Odin perked up a little at being addressed thus but it was more because Loki didn't have a better word for him than out of any conscious choice. "You would not have survived, my son. You were dying already when I found you. I have no doubt that should they ever learn the truth they will accuse me of interfering and kidnapping you when what I did was save your life and had I left it alone they still would not have had you in their lives so I cannot see that I acted wrongly."

"So I was too weak to survive," Loki muttered distastefully.

"You were an infant placed in a snow bank," Odin said. "Do you really think Thor would have done any better?"

"Thor isn't a frost giant."

"Loki, you may not be able to take as many hits as your brother before being brought down but your fighting style also means you won't have to. If he is in any sort of real fight at all he'll get hit at least once because he is out there exposed for his opponents to attack him and after the first throw of Mjolnir he tends to attack at closer quarters," Odin explained. "I've seen you win difficult fights without once getting hit. It isn't a matter of which fighting style is better but playing to your strengths. If Thor can get hit a dozen times before weakening and you cannot it would be the height of foolishness to fight as he does and yet perfectly sensible for him to do it."

"I feel like that's basically a kind way of saying 'it's alright that you're weak because you're smart'," Loki replied.

Odin shook his head. "Physically being able to get a lot or survive in the frozen snow isn't all that there is to strength and is really only the most limited area. I've seen you fight, as I've said, and I've heard plenty about the fights I wasn't there for. When you were fighting on Jotunheim, I suspect that they must have laid hands on you for you to have come here and yet you were uninjured. Everyone you defeated survived being abandoned where they wouldn't have but their foolish traditions cost them someone brilliant and powerful. And that is even only just addressing strength. Intelligence is not to be discounted and even if you had no particular virtues, which you do, no one deserves to die at birth."

"Not even people who grow to do unspeakable evils?" Loki asked rhetorically.

"It is a bit of a gray area if, should the opportunity arise to kill someone that you for some reason are able to know will always commit these acts and you cannot stop them any other way but killing them, you should kill someone who would grow up to be unspeakably evil," Odin replied. "It would not be moral and they would not _deserve _to die before they have done anything evil but I could certainly see the argument that it would be for the best."

Loki could, too, in a way that Thor never would and that cheered him somewhat.

"You should never have been left there and any rights that Laufey or his people had to you were terminated when you were left there to die as far as I'm concerned," Odin said.

"But why take me?" Loki asked. "Yes, you said that you did not believe I deserved to die as I was just an infant but there's a pretty big difference between saving my life and raising me as your son."

"I hadn't planned on it, exactly," Odin admitted. "But when I touched you your coloring changed from Jotun to Asgardian and I knew that it would be easier if I didn't tell the realm who had suffered so much as the hands of the Frost Giants that an abandoned prince would be living here among us. And I took you home to show your mother and tried to figure out what to do with you and…well, perhaps there was a reason I never could think of anything."

There were several things that Loki could think of to do. Fostering was not so uncommon and there had been plenty of orphans made by the war. The thought that Odin couldn't come up with anything and what that must mean warmed him.

"You were easier than I thought to get attached to even if I have never been able to understand you as well as your mother does or as easily as I can Thor," Odin said. "And when you were my son you were my son. What does the rest matter?"

Still, there was something bothering him. "But surely there was some other reason. You had an heir to the throne of Jotunheim, albeit an unwanted one, and you had the chance to raise me in Asgard to believe the things that you do. Tell me that there wasn't some sort of _plan_, an ulterior motive. Tell me why you never told me this until now."

"I did hope, especially when I saw what our war did to people's perceptions of Jotunheim, that one day when either you or Thor were on the throne-"

"You still act as though my becoming king were possible!" Loki couldn't believe it.

"It was. It is, particularly since Thor is banished. I hope that there is hope for him but it is out of my hands now." Odin sounded sincere though that was not strictly true. He could have brought Thor back and probably even taken back whatever he had done to Mjolnir. Loki could not say he didn't understand why Odin wouldn't, though.

"I'm a frost giant," Loki said helplessly.

"You are Asgardian," Odin corrected. "That will never change no matter what else you do. If you wish to claim your other heritage then that is your right."

Loki couldn't speak.

"The truth was never meant to be hidden from you forever. I had hoped that, with as close as you and Thor were growing up, even if Thor were on the throne his love for you would prevent him from dismissing the entire race as monsters and it would be even easier if you were on the throne not to see your own people as irredeemable monsters," Odin said.

That was perhaps a miscalculation. It was always easier for Thor to change his mind and see good things than it was for Loki to stop being suspicious. Thor would look at his brother and decide he must be wrong about Frost Giants sooner than Loki would conclude that he had not been beget of monsters.

"As for why I didn't tell you sooner…you are right," Odin conceded, "it is a little late to be mentioning it now on the day that Thor should have become king and if you were not here now I would not have told you today. If your mother were here she would say that I did not have the heart but, as king of Asgard, I cannot afford to let that sort of sentiment blind me. I should have told you. It just…took awhile to find the words."

Loki tried to imagine a scenario in which Odin could have told him the truth and it wouldn't have hurt him. Perhaps as a child…but no, back then he had been far more insecure of the fact he wasn't like the others and children said far more terrible things about the Frost Giants than did adults. Honestly, if it had to be true he would have preferred to have never known it at all and that was not something Loki would say lightly. Odin couldn't change the fact that he had found out, however. Nothing could.

"Father…" Loki said slowly, hesitantly.

Odin, who had been looking progressively more worn out as the conversation progressed, sank to his knees. "Don't let this change anything, Loki. Your brother has failed me enough today. Do not let me awaken to face disappointment in you, too."

"I won't," Loki promised quietly as Odin's eyes slid shut. "Guards!"

* * *

Loki silently joined Frigga's vigil over Odin. He would not be sitting there the whole time and neither would she for who knew how long the Odinsleep would last this time but it felt wrong to leave just yet.

"He told me, you know," Loki said casually.

Frigga understood instantly. "I hope he was able to say what he needed to say before…" She looked over at Odin and took his hand in hers.

"He told me that I was born in Jotunheim," Loki said. "He said that he should have told me earlier."

Frigga nodded. "I asked him to be honest with you from the beginning. There should be no secrets in a family."

It was all so simple for her, wasn't it? It was something she and Thor had in common. Family was family even if they weren't. But perhaps he would find it just as simple if he were not the misfitted one. There was really no way to be sure.

"So what did he lie?" Loki asked. He admitted he shouldn't have but the closest he would come to telling him was saying that Frigga would have said it was not having the heart to.

"He kept the truth from you so that you would never feel different. You are our son, Loki, and we your family. You must know that," Frigga said earnestly.

"I don't feel different," Loki admitted. "I feel like I should. Everything has changed."

"_Nothing _has changed," Frigga disagreed gently. "No one outside of your father, Heimdall, and myself know but it would not matter to Thor or your friends. You have to know that."

"Do I?" Loki asked rhetorically.

"Do not think so little of them and their loyalty after all these centuries."

"I wish I had known," Loki said.

"You wish it weren't true," Frigga corrected.

Loki smiled wanly. "Can you blame me? Apparently Father wanted me to build a bridge to peace or something."

"We both want to avoid another war and not just because the stories say that a war with Jotunheim will one day destroy us," Frigga said. "But we would not force you to do anything you don't want to do. As long as we can keep Thor from attacking Jotunheim, one way or another, I believe that we should be alright."

"As long as you can keep Thor from attacking?" Loki repeated. "Mother, you do realize that he's banished right now. What makes you think that he'll return?"

"I do not pretend to know how quickly he will be restored to us," Frigga admitted, "but we Aesir tend to live for a very long time. Assuming your brother doesn't get himself outright killed down there, or at least not in a way that doesn't prove him worthy, then I am sure that eventually he will figure it out. He was worthy before this, after all. And if he takes too long maybe your father will just give up and bring him home but I cannot imagine that Thor will be allowed to take the throne after all that."

Loki tried to imagine becoming king if Thor wasn't seen as worthy. He found it hard to believe that, as a Frost Giant, he would be allowed to ever take the throne even if there was no one else but he didn't think he would care for the throne itself. He would want it to prove that he could handle it and be a decent ruler and belonged after all but being king himself? It sounded rather stifling.

"I'm sure it won't come to that," Loki told her. "Thor may be thick-headed but after a few decades even he will get the picture."

Frigga smiled at him. "You are a good brother, Loki, and a good son."

All of this was because he had tried to be both and to protect the realm even if no one knew it and they might be saying some very different things if they had. "I hope so."

"I _know_ so," Frigga said firmly. "I understand that this is a lot to take in. I was always a little relieved that your father took telling you upon himself when he decided this was to be a secret because I was never quite sure how to. I cannot imagine it was any easier for him which is how I was able to forgive him as the centuries went by and he showed no sign of planning to tell you the truth. I am glad that you are taking this so well and trying to understand that we not think any less of your nor was this ever meant to hurt you. And the only thing this had to do with Thor was that we thought it might be nice for him to have a brother. We thought it would be nice for you to have one, as well."

"Thank you."

Frigga smiled at him. "There is no need, Loki, for I am your mother."

"I should…there are things I need to do," Loki said, standing.

"We'll be here," Frigga promised.

Loki was halfway to the door when it flung open and the guards dropped to their knees. A man came forward offering Loki Odin's scepter.

Loki just stared at it dumbly. He knew what it was and could make some educated guesses as to why it was here and yet, somehow, it didn't make any sense.

Frigga spoke up behind him. "Thor is banished. The line of succession falls to you. Until Odin awakens, Asgard is yours."

Loki turned to her. He could feel that there was something pathetically open and vulnerable on his face but he didn't seem to know how to make it stop.

"Even after…"

Frigga nodded. "Even after."

"You've always ruled whenever Father was in the Odinsleep before," Loki reminded her.

"And the time has come for you and your brother to grow into your roles," Frigga replied. "Thor was supposed to be king now anyway. He cannot and so you shall be."

"Does Father know?"

"We didn't discuss it in the short time between Thor's banishment and his going into the Odinsleep," Frigga said and there was something in her voice there. She didn't approve of casting Thor out even if she did fully believe that one day he would return. "But he can hear me now and he would not disapprove."

That, more than anything that either of them had said or that Thor might say in the future, convinced him that what they said was true. He might have been born a Laufeyson but he had been an Odinson since he had first lost his blue coloring that day in the snow.

Loki took the scepter.

"Make your father proud."

He would. He owed it to him, to all of them, for getting them into this mess in the first place. Odin would not approve of his methods, he was sure, or he would have invoked them himself but it had to be done and he would not shy away from his duty.

* * *

Loki was sitting on the throne, trying to pretend it wasn't rather discomforting and like a little boy playing dress up, when Sif and the Warriors Three approached, their faces a mask of determination.

His only consolation was that he was sure that Thor would look at least that ridiculous even if his boundless arrogance meant that perhaps he wouldn't feel that way. But then, right before the coronation he had sounded uncharacteristically self-conscious when he asked Loki how he looked.

"Allfather, we must speak with you urgently-" Sif started to say before she caught sight of him and faltered.

Loki could only imagine what they were thinking. Just because he might have said that Thor getting banished wasn't the worst thing in the world (something Fandral had even agreed with!) and had gotten the help that saved their lives was no reason for them to be looking at him like that. "My friends."

Fandral wasted no time getting right to the point. "Where is Odin?"

"Father has fallen into the Odinsleep. It has been quite awhile since the last time he did so if you'll recall."

"We would speak with your mother," Sif said.

"She refuses to leave my father's side but she would probably agree to see you, Sif, if you were to go to her," Loki said consideringly. "Though I really do not see why you would go to her with what you seek since she is not ruling in my father's place this time."

There was a clear horror among the group as this sunk in that Loki found rather insulting. They really shouldn't be left alone without him or even Thor because clearly they started thinking all sorts of mad things. It had been less than half a week!

"I didn't _steal _the throne if that's what you're thinking," he said sourly.

"It wasn't what we were thinking," Volstagg denied unconvincingly.

"Mother said that Thor and I are old enough to rule when Father is incapacitated like this seeing as how Thor was to become king himself. It's perfectly reasonable, seeing as how Thor is banished and powerless, for me to assume the throne until my father awakens which will probably be any day now," Loki said smoothly.

"It just seems a little convenient, is all," Fandral said slowly. "You did not support us in ending the banishment."

Loki rolled his eyes. "I assume I'm about to find out that I only did that so I could get to have the throne for a week or less while my father recovers from his unexpected Odinsleep."

"I wouldn't go _that _far-" Fandral started to say.

"Why not? It would certainly work out well for you since, once my nefarious week as king is up, it should mean I would have no problem trying to convince Father to let Thor return," Loki interrupted.

"Loki…" Sif started to say then stopped herself. She gestured to the Warriors Three and the four of them hesitantly kneeled before Loki.

"My King, we would ask that you end Thor's banishment," she entreated.

An appeal to his pride. Well, as far as approaches went that wasn't a bad one. And rather distracting at that.

"Why?"

Sif looked puzzled. "What do you mean 'why'? He is our friend and your brother and he doesn't deserve to be banished."

"I am not my father. I did not take Thor's powers from him and all I could do would be to bring him back to Asgard," Loki pointed out.

"Then bring him back to Asgard as a mortal and let us do the rest," Sif requested.

"Sif, my father exiled him for a reason. You know that Jotunheim is still threatening war and all you want to focus on is the fact Thor's been gone for two days?"

"That's not _all _I'm focusing on but I can't do anything about Laufey until he declares war and if war comes we will need Thor. Just because we have a bigger problem than the loss of Thor doesn't mean that his loss is still not worthy of note," Sif said heatedly.

Loki sighed. "If I brought him back it would only last for however long it took for my father to wake up and send him back to Midgard and we might all be punished as well. We were fortunate that my father did not see fit to make us face the consequences of following my brother to Jotunheim."

"If he were brought back here then it would be easier to get Odin to change his mind than if Odin had to retrieve him from Midgard," Sif pressed. "And if you would just help convince him! You know you can!"

Loki shook his head. "I just do not understand what your obsession with preventing Thor from becoming a better person down there on Midgard and proving himself worthy is."

"Do not even pretend that is what I am saying," Sif said angrily. "This is not right."

"This whole situation is not right," Loki said. "You may not be able to do anything about Laufey but, as acting king, it is my responsibility to make sure we do not go to war. If you wish to go see Thor then by all means do it but I must trust that Thor proving himself worthy will only benefit everybody, himself included."

"If I may, beg the indulgence of your Majesty, to perhaps reconsider," Volstagg said, forcing a chuckle.

"I've made up my mind and I do not do so lightly," Loki replied. "The way that you're looking at me as if I'm enjoying Thor's punishment! I never wanted him banished. I never thought this could happen. But you have yet to explain to me why, other than we all miss him, he should return and what argument could you possibly ask me to present to my father?"

"He's a prince of Asgard!" Sif burst out. "He should not be treated so!"

Loki nodded. "He is a prince of Asgard. All the more reason that he become worthy and quickly. I hope that your visit will do him some good."

They didn't look happy but they did leave. Loki considered the odds good that, even if he forbade them from going after Thor, they would go to see him anyway. As long as there was no stopping them, he might as well give his blessing and not have to deal with his friends becoming treasonous.

The moment they left, Loki closed his eyes and projected himself down to Midgard where Thor was.

His brother was wearing mortal apparel which made sense but still looked rather strange on him. Thor always looked a little wrong when he wasn't wearing his armor but this wasn't even Asgardian. Loki had decided to appear in Midgardian dress as well despite the fact that no one but Thor would actually see him. Sometimes he just liked to play the part and he rather thought his outfit was more fetching than Thor's.

Thor was sitting on a chair in an all-white room that some mortal had just exited and looking completely defeated. Loki had often despaired of his brother's arrogance and recklessness and thought he had wanted to see him humbled but…not this. Never this.

This hurt to look at.

"Loki. What are you doing here?" Thor asked bluntly.

Loki might have been offended under other circumstances. He supposed his showing up like this was rather unexpected and, while Odin probably hadn't told Thor he could have no visitors, having no visitors during his banishment was kind of expected. "I had to see you."

Thor leaned forward in his chair, clearly expecting the worst. "What's happened? Tell me. Is it Jotunheim? Let me explain to Father-"

"Father has gone into the Odinsleep," Loki interrupted. He was a little surprised that Thor was so concerned where earlier he had not thought through his actions at all despite the seriousness of the situation. Perhaps this exile was doing him some good already.

"Oh." Thor looked shaken. "Right now? With Jotunheim poised to attack?"

"The timing is hardly ideal but we've been keeping news of his incapacitation quiet so they won't be able to take advantage of it," Loki replied. "And I do have a plan for dealing with that anyway."

Thor nodded like that were the most natural thing in the world. "You always did have a gift for strategy, brother."

"I'll try to live up to my reputation."

Thor looked nervous all of a sudden and whetted his lips. "Loki…if you are here now and Father is in the Odinsleep that means that either your or Mother are ruling Asgard. Can I…can I come home?"

Loki looked away. "Thor-"

"I understand now, I really do! I never thought to provoke a war and I don't want to face one," Thor interrupted.

"That's not good enough," Loki said reluctantly. "Father cast the spell, you have to be worthy to wield Mjolnir. You were always worthy before so maybe you have to be extra worthy or something, I don't know. The most we could do would be to bring you back to Asgard a mortal. You must see the folly of that. You have to be worthy here first before your banishment can ever _truly _be over."

Thor's shoulders slumped. "You're right. I didn't understand before but just now, in the rain…I couldn't lift it, Loki. Mjolnir. It was always so much a part of me, so much a symbol of who I was and now I'm as unworthy as anyone." He suddenly glanced at Loki. "I mean no offense."

"And none is taken," Loki said though, honestly, a little bit was. Thor always was so tactless. At least he was trying. "You'll find a way. Mother believes in you and, though he did not directly address the matter, I believe that Father thinks that it is only a matter of time as well."

"That's a lot of pressure," Thor said unhappily. "I don't even know what to do."

Loki shrugged. "You have time."

Thor gave him a look. "Thank you, as ever, for your kind words of sympathy."

"I feel like I've been perfectly sympathetic," Loki said.

"You _would_."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence.

"Why did you come here, brother, if things are much the same they were when I left?" Thor asked. "I appreciate being told that Father is in the Odinsleep but it was not necessary to tell me and he will come out of it in time."

Loki smiled sardonically. "Maybe I wanted to get to you before your friends did."

"Our friends, Loki," Thor automatically corrected.

"Not when they're nagging me to bring you back even though this can only be good for you because they miss you and acting like I'm some sort of power-mad monster because I won't try and go against Father in this they aren't," Loki countered.

Thor smiled despite himself. "They've been giving you a hard time? I am sorry to hear that though grateful and relieved at their loyalty even considering what my foolishness nearly cost them."

"Fear not, Thor, they would follow you if you personally started Ragnarok out of boredom," Loki told him. "Though that's not actually a good thing."

"I don't think I'll ever be quite _that _bored," Thor said, laughing. "Besides, we agreed it was never happening, remember?"

"I do," Loki said quietly. "It won't." He cleared his throat. "They're coming to see you and I didn't want you to hear their highly-biased account of what had happened before I got the chance to see you."

"And I'm sure your highly-biased account is better than theirs," Thor teased.

Loki shrugged. "I think so."

"Well, don't worry. I'll evaluate the two stories together like I always do," Thor promised.

"And then choose me because I'm your brother."

"And then _probably _choose you because you're my brother unless you're really really in the wrong," Thor corrected. He sobered suddenly. "Do you really believe that I can do this, Loki? I'm trying but I don't even know…I thought all I needed to do would be to find Mjolnir and go home and everything would be the same but it's not working out like that."

"I _know _you can do it. You're stubborn and don't give up even in the face of all common sense and when things are impossible you're just incapable of understanding it so you do it anyway and-"

Thor held up his hands. "No more praise, brother! My head will not fit through the door."

Loki rolled his eyes tolerantly. "For all your faults, Thor, I've always known that you meant well. You know that you need to change and, even if you don't know how, you'll figure it out. It's just who you are."

"Thank you. It is good to know that you are on my side."

Loki looked away.

"Loki?" Thor asked, concerned.

"There is…something that I should tell you," Loki said hesitantly. For all the proof he had seen in the future that Thor would honestly not care about the 'adoption', he didn't want to tell him now. But surely now that his parents knew that he knew Thor could not be kept in the dark forever and worrying about him finding out would probably be worse than even Thor's worst reaction. After all, it was one thing if a changed Thor after many years decided it wasn't a big deal in the context of Loki deciding to turn against Asgard and bring about Ragnarok because of it but his initial reaction here and now might be something a little different.

But while he may rely on tricks more than foolishly charging straight into battle, he was not a coward and did not intend to become one now.

"Thor, I found out something terrible right after you were sent here," Loki said.

"What is it?"

"I suppose I actually found out on Jotunheim," Loki said, feeling a little more sympathy for Odin never telling him if it were even a fraction this difficult for him to find the words as Loki was now finding it. "Thor, they touched me."

Thor's brow furrowed. "Are you alright? Someone – I do not remember who – was burned by their very touch."

"It did not burn me, Thor, though I wish it did," Loki said bitterly. "It turned my arm blue."

Thor blinked. "…Is that so? Well. I mean, that's rather odd, isn't it? Maybe it has a different reaction to different people who touch it. We only knew it burned one person. Or maybe touching different Jotun does different things to you. It could be because of your magic that it could not hurt you but did change your coloring. Who knows what would have happened if you had kept touching it. You're a shape-shifter; you could have turned into a Jotun!"

Loki just stared at him for a moment. "Are you…are you _deliberately _not getting it so I have to spell it out?"

"Deliberately not getting what?"

"That's not an answer," Loki grumbled. "Thor, apparently I was born on Jotunheim."

"Why would you be born on Jotunheim?" Thor asked blankly. "I mean, maybe it was just a bad day when we went but it seemed rather cold and unpleasant. Why would anybody want to go? And why Mother go to Jotunheim during the war when she was pregnant? Was Heimdall taking the day off or something?"

"If I weren't intangible right now I would probably stab you," Loki informed him. "Although since you're mortal now, an intangible stab might still do the trick…"

"I don't understand why you're _threatening _me," Thor said, frowning. "Why don't you just tell me whatever it is I'm apparently not getting."

"I was the son of Laufey."

Thor gasped. "Mother would _never_!"

Loki's eyes widened. That thought was not one that had entered his head before and he really wished it hadn't. "That's disgusting."

Thor nodded. "I know. How could you say that?"

"I wasn't, trust me," Loki said, grimacing. "I don't actually know who the woman who gave birth to me was but it wasn't Mother."

Thor stared at him. "Are you sure? It all seems a little unlikely."

"Do you really think I'd be here telling you that I'm actually a Frost Giant and, more than that, the son of the king who wants to kill us all, if I wasn't _sure_?" Loki demanded.

Thor hesitated.

"Thor!"

"What? It's just that you do sometimes overreact to things when you get upset and don't stick around to hear all the facts first," Thor told him.

"I do _not_-But that doesn't matter," Loki said. "I went to the weapon's vault and picked up the Casket of Ancient Winters which made me resemble a Jotun. I asked Father about it before he went into the Odinsleep and then Mother and the pair of them confirmed it."

Thor promptly stood up and then sat right back down again dramatically.

"What was that?"

"I just felt like that was the sort of moment one should sit down for but I was already sitting," Thor explained. "That is…that is really rough, Loki."

"That's _it_?" Loki couldn't believe it. Odin and Frigga might be calm and full of 'it changes nothing's but they had known the whole time and Thor had been kept just as much in the dark as he had. He was sure of it since Thor simply could not keep a secret to save his life.

"I'm sorry, I'm a little wrung-out right now," Thor apologized. "I know that this must be completely world-changing for you. I don't even know what I would do if it were me." He paused. "_Is_ it me? Am I a Frost Giant, too?"

"Of course you're not a Frost Giant, too."

"Before just now I'd say of course you weren't one either," Thor pointed out. "Did you ask?"

"No I didn't _ask_," Loki snapped. "I didn't need to."

"Well then you don't _know_," Thor said. "You're just making assumptions because you want to be different and you think I'm too Asgardian to be a Frost Giant."

This was ridiculous. "Why wouldn't they mention you were a Frost Giant when they told me that I was?"

"Maybe they wanted to tell me first," Thor suggested. "Why didn't they tell you?"

"They said they didn't know how or didn't want me to feel different or something like that," Loki said dismissively. "You're _really _not a Frost Giant."

Thor crossed his arms. "I might be."

"I _will _turn into my Jotun form and prove it," Loki threatened.

Thor rolled his eyes. "Nice try but you're not really here so you can't."

He had him there. "Don't you hate Frost Giants? You wanted to kill them all two days ago."

Thor looked embarrassed. "Well that was two days ago. As you recall, I'm changing for the better. Besides, that was before I knew you were one."

"So now that I'm a Frost Giant, they're not all bad," Loki said sarcastically.

"Obviously," Thor said, nodding.

"…That doesn't even make any sense, Brother."

"Sure it does. I had never met any good Frost Giants before and only heard horror stories of the war and pretty much stayed away from them aside from the ones who attacked my coronation and the ones who we fought two days ago," Thor said. "It was pretty easy to see them all as bad. But now you're one – but mostly Asgardian – so obviously they can't all be evil."

"You're taking this very well," Loki said. It was almost an accusation.

"I'm sure if it were me I'd be as upset as you are," Thor was quick to reassure him. "Does anybody else know?"

"No and please don't tell them."

"I won't," Thor promised. He frowned. "I really hope you're telling the truth about me and I didn't just fall for the lamest lie you've ever told."

"I think we can all agree I've told far lamer lies," Loki said. "Like that time I pretended that you were invisible for three years."

Thor nodded. "I cannot believe I fell for it. I didn't at first but you were just so persistent!"

"I'm not lying about this," Loki said sincerely.

"I can hardly just take your word for it, can I?" Thor asked rhetorically.

Wordlessly, Loki turned blue.

"Loki, not that I don't appreciate this attempt to try to prove it to me whether this is real or not, but you're a shape-shifter. And not really here anyway so you could make your projection look like whatever you wanted. It doesn't prove anything."

"Then you'll just have to ask our parents when you get back!" Loki cried. "Which had better be soon."

"Oh, it will be," Thor agreed. He smiled. "I know it hasn't been very long but it has been very…difficult. I'm glad to see you, Loki."

Loki disliked showing sentiment as a general rule but this was a rather special circumstance. "As if you'll even be gone long enough for me to miss you. Can't even get being _exiled_ right…"

He heard Thor's booming laughter as he came back to himself.

* * *

While he was making plans to lure Laufey to his doom, Loki was keeping a close eye on his Thor and the day after he had given his blessing for Sif and the others to go find Thor they showed up at his door beaming. Even Hogun was looking thrilled and that was a bit of a strange sight to behold.

Loki wondered what it was that had taken so long. Maybe they didn't trust his acquiescence and so needed to try and figure out if they should really go or not.

"My friends!" Thor had said happily before introducing them to the people he was staying with (Darcy and Jane and some other man Loki had mercifully _not _been introduced to by those spirits).

"Thor, we've come to bring you home," Fandral informed him.

"You know I can't come home," Thor told them.

"We can convince your father," Sif told him. "He's had time, the threat is cooling down, and banishment is hardly necessary."

Thor shook his head. "Loki said that-"

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it's not true," Volstagg interrupted. "We tried to get him to help us and he wouldn't."

Thor nodded. "I know. Here, let me tell you what my brother told me and you can see if he was lying. He said that my father is in the Odinsleep and my mother named him king until Father awoke. He said Laufey still threatens war but he has a plan to deal with it. He said that I will not be truly myself again until I prove worthy and I'll know when I am because I'll be able to lift Mjolnir again. He said that until I do become worthy it would be best to stay here then to be in Asgard. Is any of that untrue?"

Sif looked very unhappy. "It would not be for the best for you to be away from Asgard."

Thor smiled sadly at her. "You know I would be of no help against our current foes if they do attack. If anything, I would be a hindrance. They could easily capture or kill me in this state. And here I have a chance to be in a place that doesn't know me as their prince. Already I am not who I was. Here I have a chance to prove myself. You know that were I to come home nobody would let me do anything and I would be stuck as a mortal forever."

"You won't come back?" Fandral asked, disappointed.

"I wish that I could. It means the world to me that you came. But one day…" Thor said wistfully.

"This isn't fair," Sif protested.

Thor shrugged. "We could be a lot worse off. By all accounts we should have all died when I led us to Jotunheim."

"It was never your fault alone," Hogun spoke up. "We all made the choice to follow you there, even Loki."

Fandral shook his head. "I still think he's up to something."

"Loki is Loki, I would be terribly surprised and a little disappointed if he wasn't," Thor said simply. "But do you think that what he is up to is designed to hurt me or Asgard?"

Fandral slumped. "No, no I don't."

"Then let's let him be 'up to something' and see if he can't avert this war," Thor suggested. He looked at their disappointed faces. "But just because I'm not coming home yet is no reason why you have to leave so soon."

Loki was, in fact, up to something and – while risky – it was also quite brilliant. He could assassinate King Laufey himself and look like the hero for doing so since Laufey had come to kill Odin while he slept helplessly. Yes Laufey was technically invited to do just that but he didn't _have _to take Loki up on it, did he? As far as Loki was concerned, Laufey deserved what he was going to get.

The fact he would so easily believe Loki when he claimed that he wanted to murder his own father just for something so craven as _power_ a rankled further. Yes Loki could be very convincing but the idea made him quite ill so he hardly thought he was at his best.

This man, this _coward_, was the man who sired him but he certainly was no father. Loki would feel nothing when he ended him.

He did get some satisfaction from telling Laufey that he was ended by the son of Laufey.

Loki had specified that his mother was not to be harmed and yet she was so casually thrown across the room. Granted she was attacking them but they were there to kill her slumbering husband so Loki rather thought that she had the right. She was so very grateful to him for saving Odin and not even slightly suspicious. Of course she wasn't. Loki would _never _let Frost Giants kill Odin.

There was a slight worry that Laufey's cowardly attempt to kill Odin might spark feelings of rage and clamors for war among the Asgardians as it died down among the Jotun but Loki was confident that Odin wouldn't let it come to that. No one wanted to risk Ragnarok.

Maybe this path was the path that he had started down in another life where he had cut his ties with everything and one day became a man who killed kill Thor so casually. It didn't matter because he did not intend to go any further down it. Laufey was dead and Asgard was safe no matter what sort of questionable methods had been used to ensure that.

"You have done well, my son," Odin's voice sounded and Loki looked away from his mother to see that his father had awoken and was sitting up in bed.

Frigga let go of him to run to her husband. "Oh, I was so worried! The sleep was so different this time."

"I should not have put it off for so long," Odin replied. "But I thought that if I could just hold out until Thor was king then it would not matter. I will not delay so in the future."

"How did Laufey even get in here?" Frigga asked.

"Presumably the same way that they were able to breach the palace before," Odin said grimly. "This is a serious security matter and one that will need to be looked into immediately. I do not know how they were able to conceal themselves from Heimdall. It would take powerful sorcery indeed."

Heimdall knew that Loki could cloak himself like that so he might as well admit to that right now.

"I have found ways to travel between the realms that does not involve going through the Bifrost," Loki told them. "I do not know how they were able to conceal themselves from Heimdall but perhaps they used one of the ones I use. I have not found a road that leads to Jotunheim but then I was not looking."

Odin nodded. "I would have you show me."

"Of course."

"I am not pleased to see people die in my bedchamber and even less so to see them cut down moments before they could slay my husband but I am glad that war has been averted," Frigga said, sighing. "It has been averted, has it not? Surely the Frost Giants could not seek retribution for this!"

Odin considered. "I do not believe that they would though our own people may want vengeance. I will have to just remind that them we do not want another war and that the death of the conspirators will have to be enough. It is fortunate in a way that Laufey was among them so we will not have to wonder about whether he was involved. I can only hope the new king will be so pragmatic."

Loki swallowed. "I'm sorry for any part that I might have played to imperiling Asgard, Father."

Odin shook his head. "It's not your fault. Even had you goaded Thor into going to Jotunheim, which I half-suspect since you made plans to alert me before you arrived, he still made his own choices. I trust the consequences of your act will be enough to make you consider your own actions more carefully."

Loki nodded. It was difficult to keep things from the Allfather. "I will."

"I'm sorry that I fell into the Odinsleep before we had truly finished our discussion," Odin told him. "I hope that you have come to terms with your origins."

Loki looked Frigga's way. "It wasn't easy, Father, and I still don't think that I'm entirely comfortable with it. I don't want people to know."

"They won't."

"I'm not ashamed of who I am but…" Loki trailed off, trying to find the right words. "I don't feel like that's me no matter where I came from. And yes, I think I'm more or less alright."

"I'm so glad," Frigga said, smiling at him. "You have no idea how I've worried over this day."

Loki snapped his fingers. "But that reminds me! Sif and the Warriors Three still haven't gotten back from visiting Thor yet and I projected myself down there before that to tell Thor about my…discovery. He wants to know if I'm really absolutely positive that there's no way he's a Frost Giant."

Whatever reaction he had been expecting, Odin bursting into that same booming laughter of Thor's wasn't it. But it really could have been worse, all things considering.

* * *

It took months but one day Heimdall called them all to the Bifrost with the news that Thor had been restored to himself and was coming home.

Loki was more pleased than he would have expected to hear it. Things just hadn't been the same without Thor and once Sif and the Warriors Three had gotten back from Midgard Odin had let them know he wanted them to keep away from Thor for awhile so he wouldn't become reliant on them and would seek out worthiness on his own.

Perhaps Loki still peeked in on him here and there but Thor didn't see him and that was what mattered. Thor certainly seemed pleased with Jane Foster and Loki saw that Thor had met most of the other people he had had to look in on all those months ago.

Their friends were very anxious to see Thor but they were respecting the family's right to greet him first.

The moment Thor, dressed in his favorite armor again, appeared in Asgard Frigga pulled him into a hug that seemed like it would never end. Thor didn't look like he minded.

What was more surprising was that when she let go Odin stepped up and hugged him as well and that was a far rarer occurrence. "My son."

"My father," Thor replied. He looked over at Loki.

"What? I'm not going to hug you," he said flippantly.

Thor laughed. "Next time I'll stay gone longer and you'll be begging me for a hug when I return."

"Stay gone longer and I'll move into your room."

"Perfect! Then your room will be unoccupied when I return to reclaim my own," Thor declared.

"Boys," Frigga admonished but she was still smiling. "Thor, what happened?"

"I was contacted by an organization called SHIELD. They were in charge of keeping people safe and handling more specialized threat including people from other realms. I was not a threat nor was in a position to conquer anybody but they still offered me a chance to help. I trained in their way of combat and made adjustments for my lower power level," Thor explained.

"I even joined something called the 'Avengers Initiative' to deal with what my friend Tony Stark calls 'a jumped up pseudo-threat because Fury wants his own personal Justice League.'"

"And then you were proven worthy?" Odin asked.

"Eventually," Thor said, looking a little embarrassed.

"You had to die, didn't you?" Loki asked rhetorically.

Thor coughed. "Yes, well, apparently worthiness demanded that I be willing to lay down my life to protect others. I was doing that the entire time I was there but…evidently it had to be more literal than that."

Frigga looked alarmed. "So what happened?"

"I was helping evacuate small children from a school that was the target of an attack when a foe appeared. He was trying to attack the children and I would not let him so I was shot instead. They tell me I was dead but I don't remember that. I just remember waking up in my armor with Mjolnir and my powers restored. I finished the mission, promised to return, and came here," Thor explained.

"I knew that you would prove yourself," Odin said, pleased. "I am proud of you, my son."

Thor smiled back. "Thank you, Father. I would like to stay for awhile and find out what I have missed in my absence but then I would like to return to Earth and continue protecting its inhabitants."

"Not permanently, I hope," Frigga said, alarmed.

"No, of course not," Thor assured her. "It would not be for more than a few years, I believe, and I would not have to be down there all of the time."

"What about the throne?" Odin asked.

"In a strange way, I believe it may be a blessing that all of this happened," Thor said. "I would have made a terrible king then. I hope to one day make a good one but I think I'm going to need a few decades yet before I'm ready."

"In the meantime, I can continue to fill in when you need to go into the Odinsleep, Father," Loki offered. "Seeing Sif's face when Thor is no longer banished but he still does not take the throne would be worth a great many things."

Thor grew thoughtful. "I have been thinking about you two…"

Loki blinked, mystified. "What about us?"

But Thor just looked mysteriously smug and said nothing.

"I am glad that this ended as well as it did," Odin said. "I was worried at some points that it wouldn't. I'm glad we all learned something but, boys, please promise me no more trips to Jotunheim."

"I promise," they intoned dutifully.

"We can't keep nearly getting into a war and having to kill their kings or sooner or later they'll run out of them," Loki said reasonably.

"And we don't want them to keep trying to invade Asgard, either," Frigga said pointedly. "Your father almost died the last time."

Thor drew back. "Wait, we killed Laufey? And he nearly killed Father? When did this happen? Why didn't anybody tell me?"

"Oh, it's all fine now and that was ages ago. But weren't you listening?" Loki asked. "No more trips to Jotunheim."

"I only went there to nearly start a war _one time_," Thor complained. "Are you never going to let me live it down?"

"Never," Loki confirmed.

Thor groaned.

Loki did not know where, exactly, they would have been if he had not changed the future but he suspected it would not be anywhere this good. He would have to keep an eye out for this Malekith when he showed up again – if he showed up again and please let that not have been entirely his own fault – but for now things seemed to be going well. He could almost pretend that he had never come from such a hateful place, especially since people weren't talking about it as much.

He still thought he handled the attempted war better than Thor would have but maybe this new wiser and more mature Thor would be better at openly taking advice and Loki wouldn't have to manipulate him so often. Of course he probably would anyway because it was fun and he was who he was but knowing he didn't have to would still be nice.

He was the son of a king and one day he'd be the brother of a king and have his ear. That was all of the benefits of ruling with none of the drawbacks. When the day came for Thor to really become king, Loki thought he might even be okay with it.

After all, he had never really wanted the throne anyway. But he was certain he looked better sitting in it than Thor did and sometimes you had to take your victories where you could.


End file.
